Untitled, from the “Constructed Projects" series

Anna Maria Maiolino has almost always been a foreigner, and such status has strongly influenced her career. Born in Italy, she was still a child when she emigrated to Venezuela, where she lived until the age of eighteen. In 1960 she moved to Rio de Janeiro and in 1968 obtained the Brazilian citizenship. Her close connection with Bahian cultural environment and with the neo-concrete movement established her as an artist. By the end of the nineteen-sixties she settled in New York City, which brought her back a sense of uprooting. Back in Brazil, her career gained new momentum. Key issues in her works are identity and memory, ever present with subtlety. She explored several media: from Super 8 films to ceramics and engravings. The untitled work of this collection is part of the series “Projetos Construídos,” which Maiolino uses to compose some sort of personal space of her own. Straddling painting and sculpture, the artist combines ink with thread and lines with cuts. The act of sewing and piercing paper is doubly significant. On the one hand, it gives the character of a body to something that has so far been a mere support. On the other hand, it also embraces the longing to connect what was torn apart due to the distance.