A search for roots is a poignant metaphor for Maiolino’s work, which over sixty years has engaged a multitude of media, from painting and drawing, to woodblock printing, photo and video, performance and clay sculpture. Shown in the Nucleo Storico, Year 1942 (1973) is part of her Mental Maps, a series that addresses the artist’s own experience of migration. Among the multiple pieces in the series that reconstruct the map of Italy, this is the only one that scorches it entirely. This violent act evokes the unprecedented bombing of Italy by Allied forces in 1942 – also the artist’s year of birth - and expresses her abstract sense of alienation from her country of origin.
This is the first time the work of Anna Maria Maiolino is presented at Biennale Arte, and she is recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
—Sofia Gotti and Amanda Carneiro
