by Margaret Sgarra, contemporary art curator
Roberta Bertazzini, is a visual artist with a predilection for installation-based works, she creates multi-material pieces which articulate in space and lend themselves to multiple interpretations. Fundamental is the relationship between structure and concept, expression and form. Aspects that, in most cases, dialogue with the user. So that, the viewer acquires a prominent role within the creative process, while remaining anonymous.
When did you realize that you would pursue an artistic investigation and why?
Actually, there really was that precise moment in which I perceived that I had a path ahead of me to follow in this fascinating world of “creativity”. But, no matter how hard I try, even by consulting my memory I cannot remember that exact moment. In fact, I have the feeling that it has always existed, right there, present in me under the form of “urgency”, a sort of inexplicable push to which I have never wanted to respond, privileging the journey with resourcefulness and a pinch of healthy madness. The reason why I dedicate myself entirely is a simple and total gratitude towards what has been given to me as a gift, a precious gift to give back to the community by sharing it.
What are your artistic references and what have they transmitted to you?
I love exploring every artistic form, even the most unsuspected, such as science that seems to be a pragmatic tangle, but for me is totally “creative”. I love observing and immersing myself in the highest form of art existing, namely Mother Nature and the entire universe that surrounds us. I love exploring the visible and the invisible with the same intensity, following a syncopated rhythm to which I can never give a precise shape. At most, I let it be shaped in an arbitrary form, following the blood flow. Music and words are however among the worlds that I frequent with the greatest passion for their ability to pass through me physically, emotionally and spiritually. My “artistic references” always leave me literally breathless.
Textile materials, objets trouvés, metal and glass structures, ephemeral components alternate and dialogue within your poetics. How do you choose the structural elements within your work?
I don’t choose them, but they choose me. I often encounter them by stumbling upon them, or I find them in childhood memories imprinted in a deep memory. In many cases, however, I dream of them and, in the middle of the night, I get up and take notes because, as we know, when I wake up they usually often vanish. Sometimes they appear while I’m having a conversation with someone, words and images arrive that often lead me to a resolution, to a material that I hadn’t considered. Curiosity and instinct are my primary “suppliers”.
Many of your works have a relational intent that aims to involve the user in various aspects. How important is the reception of your research for you? And when are you fully satisfied with this interaction?
Involving and sharing are fundamental elements and intentions, not only artistically speaking. Every artistic form must, and I stress must, be available to the community as a full right by birth. It is difficult for me to express what “goes through” me without leaving it untied, so that it goes through whoever wants to “be gone through”. This is an important detail, because reception is a free access for every individual who, endowed with sensitivity, brings his own story and his own journey. Every time I involve the community, I do not expect a tangible feedback. The moment you leave the door open, you know that not everyone is ready to pass through it. And, from the experience I have had, the most striking and exciting results have come precisely from those who stopped at the door. I will continue this modus operandi as a source of full satisfaction and gratitude.
Inside your studio, each work reflects part of your life and your personal experiences. Is the transmission of one’s interiority through one’s works a fundamental aspect of being an artist in the contemporary world for you?
Bringing yourself is a necessary condition not only for me, but for anyone who wants to free their sense of “urgency”. I often use this term because it perfectly conveys the idea of what can happen during this extraordinary journey that is life. Being able to express what intimately distinguishes us through art, whether it is painting, sculpture, poetry, dance or music, has a huge advantage, as well as being a great responsibility. In other words, you lay yourself completely bare without being seen for how you see your “nudity”. I mean that it always remains that very mysterious veil that only the artist has experienced in the intimacy of his creative “nest”, and there is no form that can describe it as that moment. I call this magic.
A recurring feature in your installations is the staging of balance, which is represented by a visual, material or conceptual balance. What is your relationship with the element of balance?
Balance is a dance, a perpetual motion, changeable, inconsistent, impermanent, voluptuous, sensual, nourishing, playful, imperturbable. Balance is the ability to probe our fragility as an unfailing resource, it is a sail filled with wind, it is infinite chromaticism. Balance is the dress that I will not wear except for a few moments. Balance is bare skin and loose hair while I look at the blue.
If you had to indicate a single work of art that is particularly dear to you, what would you tell me and why?
The work of art that is particularly dear to me is the one that I have not yet made, the one that does not yet exist in my head, in my heart, in my hands, because the most compelling part is the “prelude”.