CORRESPONDENCE | MARTINA DELLA VALLE

The blueprint on silk is one of the five pieces that, together with a video and thirteen prints on transparent paper, make up the Correspondence series. As the title suggests, the work is the result of the artist’s long-distance correspondence with a group of women who attend the Italian language school at the Presidio Caritas in Pachino, in the province of Syracuse (Sicily).

The exchange of impressions, which lasted several months, led to the creation of a corpus of images that represents the visual diary of the experiences of these women, all coming from different cultural backgrounds. Gestures and objects narrate their everyday lives, their integration into communities through agricultural work, and the sharing of silent rituals that are as archaic as they are topical.

The meaning of these rituals is nourished by the intimate and profound value attributed to commitment and hard work, principles that emerge clearly from the iconographic apparatus created by the migrants themselves using their mobile phones. The images, reworked by Martina della Valle to be printed on transparent sheets or transferred onto large silk sheets – like this one – are the result of a laborious process of creation that refers to the efforts experienced by the women. Correspondence, therefore, not only brings us back to the dramatic pandemic situation faced by those who were already living in difficulty, but also amplifies the voice of those who are too often ignored and cornered, considered invisible only because they are convinced they can change things by cultivating their dreams.

©Martina della Valle, Correspondence, 2021

26/07/2021