Objects of Defence

Marta Cervera Gallery is pleased to announce Objects of Defence, Ludovica Carbotta's second exhibition with the gallery. The show is open from the 22nd of November 2019 until the 18th of January 2020 in the venue of Calle Valencia 28, Madrid.

Ludovica Carbotta (Torino, 1982) lives and works in Barcelona (SP).

In order to survive, a body, as well as a city, employs a number of different strategies. Some of said strategies are put into action to defend the organism. They can manifest in reflexive gestures, acts of disobedience, conscious activities, or maybe even considered plans. But some of them are also completely unconscious, they are, what a psychologist would usually call: defence-mechanisms.

For some time now, they might have grown, and apparently, they are still on someone’s mind. They dwell in remote places, usually very well hidden, but in case they appear they can take on complex and misleading shapes: shapes designed to hide their true intentions. What these entities reveal of themselves is beautiful and also equally ugly. They might distract or even deceive the same organism that was responsible for shaping them slowly.

Objects of Defence constitutes a complete change of context for a body of work by Ludovica Carbotta entitled Monowe: The Powder Room. This set of sculptural works was conceived earlier this year as a commission for May You Live in Interesting Times, curated by Ralph Rugoff for the 54th edition of the Venice Biennale. The presentation resulted in a site-specific installation adapted to the architecture of the former gunpowder storage of Forte Marghera, a 19th-century fortress built across the lagoon from Venice. Connecting with the metaphorical resonance of the site, a building designed to protect the outside environment from its explosive internal content, the display explored the ways in which the human imagination might trigger powerful emotions that could hurt the body, even without any imminent actual danger. The current exhibition at Marta Cervera reveals how a change of scenery affects perception and discloses different meanings in a project’s narrative. Her practice focuses on the physical exploration of the urban space and how individuals establish connections with the environment they inhabit. In recent works, by combining installations, texts and performances, she is researching on fictional site specificity, a form of site-oriented practice that considers imaginary places or embodies real places with fictional contexts, recovering the role of imagination as a value to construct our knowledge.

Carbotta has completed an MFA at Goldsmiths University in London (2015). Her work was presented at the 58th International Art Exhibition, May You Live in Interesting Times, Venice Biennale (2019), curated by Ralph Rugoff.

Recent solo exhibitions: Monowe, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Torino (2019); smART, Roma (2019); Artissima Present Future, Torino (2018); Marselleria, New York (2018); Marta Cervera Gallery, Madrid (2017); ON Public - Monowe, Bologna (2016); A motorway is a very strong wind, Care Of, Milan (2014); Vitrine 270° - Without Walls, Galleria Arte Moderna, Turin (2013); Greater Torino, Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, Turin (2011). Among her recent group shows: Drawing Center (New York, US), EACC (Castelló de la Plana, ES), La Casa Encendida (Madrid, ES), Mambo (Bologna, IT), Palazzo Fortuny (Venice, IT) Kunstlerhaus Museum (Graz, AU), MAXXI Museum (Rome, IT), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Turin, IT), Hangar Bicocca (Milan, IT), Dublin Contemporary (Dublin, IRL), Matadero (Madrid, ES), Swiss Institute (Rome, IT), Les Instants Chavirés (Paris, FR).

She is the co-founder of Progetto Diogene, an International Residency Program in the public space and The Institute of Things to Come, a research centre on futurological scenarios. She was awarded the Ariane de Rothschild Prize, Milan (2011), the Premio Gallarate (2016), International Fellowship Gasworks, London (2016), and the Special Mention at Premio ITALIA, MAXXI Museum, Rome (2016). In 2017 she is fellow researcher at Jan Van Eyck Academie, in Maastricht, in 2018 recipient of New York Prize, ISCP/Columbia University.