Marta Roberti - Fondazione Antonio Ratti

Marta Roberti
works and projects
2009-2011
Marta Roberti via del Casale Galvani 9 ; 00157 Roma (Italia)
+39 328 8126488
martaroberti@hotmail.it
link at videos: vimeo.com/user5021898

ways and places of research
My approach is based on the intersection between art and philosophy. The heart of my interdisciplinary work is a series of hand-drawn animations,
and some philosophical texts, in which I care to investigate the issues that have to do with the subjectivity in contemporary society, with
special emphasis on the indefiniteness of human nature and its potential and neotenic essence (a chronic childhood). I am especially interested in
the constant modelling that learning effects on human lack of completeness, and particularly the lack of a fixed end-point. This species- specific
characteristic of the human animal is radically historicized in today’s temporary, fragmentary modes of existence, subject to a never-ending redefinition
brought about by lifelong learning and education processes.
It is for me a trespassing between art and philosophy, which wants to suggest a nomadic attitude : as an artist I use philosophical inquiry’ method
and, conversely, as a philosopher, I use the tools of art. In this sense, the hand drawings with which I made the videos, are an alternative to writing
essays, classically provided by the methodology of philosophical inquiry.
Another central element that characterizes my work is to proceed exclusively through practices of manually drawing, which provide a very long
time (from half year to one year depending from the video lenght) for the realization of video animations, that I realize by myself from drawings
to photography and video editing. Only with regard to music or sound I look for the collaboration with other artists.
Another recurring concept underlying my work is connected to the phenomenon of different repetition, on which video animation itself is
founded, just as are human subjectivity, the body’s habits, memory and time.
The philosophical fabric of my works intertwines with an obsessive hunt for forgotten family albums in flea markets and family videos uploaded
on You Tube. I am interested in finding recurring elements and figures that are repeated in people’s self-representations.
I am fascinated by how every family photo album looks interchangeable: leafing through a stranger’s photo album we can always find features
that are familiar to us. This moment of recognition brings about a kind of depersonalization. In Virginia Woolf ’s words, this shall be childood; but
it has not be my childood.

pierrot
2011
hand drawing animation
It is a narration inspired from PENIS ENVY described by Sigmund Freud. some little boys, dressed as pierrot in a snowy wood, during their Oedipus complex,
compete on how long they can piss. The little girl doesn’t want to mesure her self as the boys, so she makes a drawing in the snow with her piss.
I wanted to overturn the supposed female’ penis jealousy into a different form to solve conflicts not based on competiotion but on creativity.
I’m working now on this project not finished yet.

pierrot, frame dal video

pierrot, frame dal video

pierrot, frame dal video

pierrot, frame dal video

pierrot, frame dal video

environment becoming
(waiting women)
http://vimeo.com/18421555
video installation of
hand drawing animations
project 2010

from Eugene Minkowski Lived time: phenomenological and psychopathological
studies.
“The vital phenomenon which is opposed to activity, while if it is
situated on the same plan, is not passivity, but waiting.
Naturally here we are not considering waiting for a precise moment
that, according to our prevision, has to happen in a specific moment,
for example a train that has to pass in half an hour. This is a waiting
full of measurable time […]
In waiting there’s not duration, there’s not time organisation....
[…] Activity and expectations determine the general attitude of the
individual in the world. If in activity, unfolding in the empty I’m
almost a whole, if in expectation I am reduce to my simple expression
and under the threat of being swallowed up by environment becoming
I am almost nothing, it is probably thanks to the combined action of
activity and expectation that I am what I am...”
environment becoming, video still, drawing on graphite paper

environment becoming , video still, drawing on graphite paper

This plan derives from a research that I used to do in flow markets where I find
old photos from 1890 to 1960: I have found a lot of pictures representing women
that in a wild nature seems captured from a vision, waiting for something that not
arrives: women present themselves suggesting a melanchonical and not solved
waiting.
Minkowsky says that the vital phenomenom which is opposed to activity is not
passivity but waiting. He says that in expectation I am reduced to my simple
expression and under the threat of being swallowed up by environment becoming
I am almost nothing .
The border between a subject and an object does not still exist while we are waiting.
Through the animation of the drawings in my video installacion I’ve forced
this sensation of ambient becoming in a pose of expectation: women are represented
in a way that does not favour the human presence in the ambient, infact in the
drawings women are not different from nature, they are nature like the trees, the
ground and the sky.
In these animated drawings I’ve subverted the movement intended as a transfer
of a character from one spot to another against a fixed background. I try to think
movement as an uninterrupted, fluid metamorphosis of a whole, as the change in
quality of a whole to which the subject belong, in a context in which translations
in space are subject to the becoming of the whole in which they are caught and
that controls the metamorphosis and the direction of what happens within it. I
call this kind of movement modulation. Movement intended as modulation is
vibration, is a change in quality and consists in the modulation of all the image
components.. Video animations are realized in this special way: I photocopy and
enlarge the photos of waiting women. Aer I trace for around 200 times (200
drawings) the photocopy so to engrave the graphite paper that I’ve put below the
photocopy. I have traced the same picture for 200 times with the purpose to obtain
pictures not much different among them. The drawings always represent the
same scene but every drawing is a little different from the others.
The idea to animate with a ‘vibration’ or modulated movement all the videos that
made up the installacion seems to me successful to characterize waiting time and
poses: immobility, minimal changes of posture.
ambient becoming , video still, drawing on graphite paper

environment becoming
technical description
The video installation will be made up of 4 or 5 video animations,
depending on the place where it is going to be showed. Each video
presents a single woman waiting in a strong nature: women appears like
real presences in a natural size animation. Videos will not be projected
on the wall, but on special sheets used to protect plants in winter called
unwoven fabric, in the middle of the room.
Each animation is in a loop sequence and video projections will be
placed in the same room, or in more than one room, so to create a video
installation in which sound and moving images can have a strong impact
on the public, als absorbed in an expectation of something that is
not going to happen.
environment becoming , video still, drawing on graphite paper

environment becoming, drawing on graphite paper inserted in a glass room, 32x24x6cm

environment becoming, drawing on graphite paper inserted in a glass room, 32x24x6cm

composite bodies
Installation of three drawings on graphite paper 2007
The installation “composite bodies’ is made up of three drawings that reproduce old school photographs of children taken at the beginning of the
last century. The children’s bodies have been arranged in a pose to obtain a deliberately geometric and composited scene.
The three large drawings are made respectively of one, four and eight sheets of graphite paper each measuring 70 x 100 cm. They were obtained
through tracing three photographs previously enlarged to 140cm x 300cm, 140cm x 200cm and 70cm x 100cm respectively, which served as a matrix.

composite bodies serie, 140x300cm, 6 graphite papers

in the classroom, composite bodies serie, 140x200cm, 4 graphite papers

Mother’s shadow
work in progress
old black and withe photos archive
Mother’s shadow is a project that consists to archive old photos from the last century and found in flow markets. In this photos the mother that has
taken the photo to her son projects her shadow on the body of the children.
Mother’s shadow is a title borrowed from a book of the 1970, published by the feminist philosopher of Diotima, a female philosophers community
placed in Verona University. In this book the female philosopers thinks about the contradictory relartionship between mother and daughter,
because they say that is form this relationship that comes female freedom. I transposed this concept in an ironical way.

Neoteny
I’m working on Neoteny with some different projects: video animations and performance such as Neotenic, Educanda (Girl boarder), and
Knowing that we do not know.
Neoteny is a term defining the perpetuation of childhood features in adult individuals which philosophers and sociologists, such as the Italian Paolo
Virno, sustains that the chronic infant, that is to say, never achieves a stage by which he is to be considered definitive, but continuously behaves
under a redefinition due to his lack of specialized instincts which other animals are supply with. Thus, it is the comparison with other animals what
makes it possible to refer to human being as the most incomplete and non-adapted amongst the terrestrial creatures. The other animals live in their
environment as though using a prosthesis, knowing quite well what to do about it; the human being does not live in such rigid spheres and his vital
habitat is the world where he develops an essential existential experience, namely, learning. Chronic infancy is a natural state of the human animal,
and every society of any age has attempted to moderate by rite-like repetitive devices, along with work engagement which does not plainly expose
it. In a contemporary society what prevail is processes that expose this neotenous structure, with its features of intermittence and precariousness,
flexibility and uninterrupted development.

Knowing that we do not know
2010
performance and video
The peculiarity of this performance is in the age of the participants as it is open only to men and women over seventy. It consists in private philosophy
lessons taken in any place of a city: square, bar, street, train... When I found an old man or woman alone in a public space (garden, train,
street...) I ask him/her if he/she wants to listen and partecipate to a philosophical lesson. I record with a small video camera on a tripod all the
conversations between me and the woman or the man that deciced to partecipate at the performance.
The focus of my lesson is Socrates’ famous formulation: I KNOW THAT I KNOW NOTHING. We don’t know anything except our own
ignorance: this is the main issue that the lesson explores, and the elderly talks about their own experience about to doesn’t Know .
Lessons take place in an open and public space so as to evoke the oral and public dimension of Socrates’ teachings. Socrates never wrote philosophical
texts, he was in fact the champion of oral modes of communication. The final aim of the project is to realize a video through a montage of
this lessons.
We can say that Philosophy was born in Greece with Socrate’s admission of ignorance in the V sec. a.C. Socrate teaches that we never have
a complete knowledge and that is important to know that we don’t know. He has understood to be the most intelligent in Athen because he
knows that he has no intelligence. Others persons deceive themself: they believe to be intelligent but they have no Knowledge; Socrate at least
has a Knowledge in fact he Knows that he doesn’t Know. This concept is analogue to the concept of neoteny, that means never achieves a stage

Neotenic http://vimeo.com/16051542
hand drawing animation with watercolours
2:38 min.
dvd pal 2009
Neotenic is a video animation composed of several hundreds of drawings realised by watercolour technique. The woman’s movements whose overweight
body recalls those of Willendorf ’s Venus, faithfully reproduce a baby’s movements who is learning to keep an upright position and attempts
to walk. The little boy I was inspired by is one amongst the many shot mothers on the four corners of the world, uploaded on youtube.

Educanda (Girl boarder)
http://vimeo.com/16051470 2009
stop motion video animation with plasticine
2: 14 mins.
dvd pal
Girl Boarder is a stop motion video animation created for a small screen or television set. A little girl made with Plasticine was set in a scene
reminiscent of the photographs of pupils which used to be taken on their first few days at school: a map in the background, a table with a notebook
on which the pupils’ hands were to rest neatly, the black school smock. This iconography recurred in 1940s photographs which I found,
but it may originate even further back in time. I myself am portrayed in the same way in a 1980s school photograph.
The video consists of a single shot of the girl sitting at her desk reading a complicated philosophy text. The character’s voice is lent by a seven
year old girl who at my request read this passage dealing with human nature intended as neotenic, never defined and always potentially alterable
through learning. The schoolgirl’s reading appears like a struggle against the words and sentences whose meaning escapes her. Despite not
knowing the meaning of the sounds that her voice articulates, the girl is visibly striving to achieve self-discipline and comply with the school’s
requirement that she performs the task to the best of her abilities. She cannot understand what she is reading, as the language of philosophy
removes words from the materiality they possess in pre-school language, where words embody objects. School brings about a deportation from
that world in which no ri exists between words and objects: the girl who is reading is obedient, she struggles to learn adults’ language, but is
represented in the process through which she endeavours to take on a different form and leave her own.

Lacuna (Gap) http://vimeo.com/21516427
2008/2010
hand drawing animation with carbon paper
4: 5o mins.
music by ALva Noto
dvd pal
video projection in a dark room
The title Lacuna plays on the etymological meaning of the term ‘lacuna’, intended both as lack, gap, absence, a state of pure will and indeterminacy, and as a pond or lagoon,
where the video animation is set. This video has been done for my diploma in the Art Accademy, so that is accompained by a philosophical text : Places and figures
of the repetition, that has been published in 2010. The video and the thesis are strictly connected. Both are a sort of journey through some philosophical and literary
places where the phenomenon of repetition is clearly evident. Animation is actually a process of repeticion of drawings thare are slightly different from each other. In my
animation I use a tecnique I call modulation which consists in the repeticion of the same drawing, without any fixed background behind the character. This techique
involves repeticion as both material and phisical procedure, but also the theme of the narration in Lacuna: the double, the reflections, memory apparitions, the past
reflected in the present, dejà-vu, the body’s cyclic return to nature from which it originates.

the artists
2007
photograph printed on cotton.
100x140cm
What is art? Who is an artist? This work born from these question. My father is a plein air painter. I’ve found these photographs in his album.
The photographs represents my father and his friends painting at the beach.
My father and his friends call each others ‘artist’. My father doesn’t know contemporary art, but he has represented to me ‘the artist’ for a lot of
years. The way he has presented me what he calles art, has been the motivacion of my being far from art until I was 20, when I’ve understood
that can be an artist also who is not a good painter.
In this sense I’ve used photoshop to transform this photos into paintings.

MARTA ROBERTI born in Brescia (ITALY) 08/12/1977 l
Live and works in ROME(ITALY), VIA DEL CASALE GALVANI 9, 00157
martaroberti@hotmail.it tel.+39 3288126488
EDUCATION
2005-2008 – DEGREE in ART and TECHNOLOGY : BRERA ART ACCADEMY, Milano. CINEMA AND VIDEO department VOTE: 110 cumlaude/110 TESI
PRINTED (relators Antonio Caronia e Andrea Lissoni)
2002 -DEGREE in PHILOSOPHY: Faculty of PHILOSOPHY - Verona. VOTE:110 cumlaude/110TESI PRINTED (relator Chiara Zamboni)
2006-2008). MASTER FIRST LEVEL: ART ARCHITECTURE AND TERRITORY: interfaculty master between Architecture faculty, Roma 3 Accademy of Art
(Brera-Milan) TESI PRINTED
1996: SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL SPECIALIZING IN SCIENCE EDUCATION, , Giacomo Perlasca Institute, Idro (Bs) Italy.
LENGHTY STAYS ABROAD
BARCELONA 1998: 1 YEAR ERASMUS, PHILOSOPHY FACULTY
BUENOS AIRES 2004 : 1 YEAR PHILOSOPHY TEACHER , ITALIAN CULTURAL INSTITUTE .
PUBLISHED ESSAYS ABOUT ART AND PHILOSOPHY:
-REPETICION’S FIGURES AND PLACES, publicated by CASVA, ( High visual art studies centre) Milano, 2010
-ART AND GRACE by Marta Roberti, print in Legàmi. With Gregory Bateson,AA.VV. Editrice universitaria, Verona, University Verona 2006
-WORKING WHILST TALKING, TALKING WHILST WORKING, LANGUAGE AT WORK IN MAURO FOLCI’S WORK. By Marta Roberti, Stampa alternativa,
Quaderni delle idee, ediz. Speciale del corso di perfezionamento interfacoltà Arte, Roma 2010
ARTICLES
-GENIUS LOCI POWER’, critical text for 20 EVENTI ARTE IN SABINA, 2009.
-BOREDOM, EIDOS, film and psychoanalysis review, september 2010.
MAIN COLLECTIVE EXIBITIONS AND VIDEO SCREENINGS 2009/2011:
2011: -SHOWDESK, NOMAS FOUNDATION curated by sottobosco.
-LIVING SPACES, INTERNATIONAL ART FESTIVAL, Damascus, Sirya, curated by Abir Boukhari (Allartnow)
CONNESSIONI 89, art and teather festival, Milan, Italy curated bu Giulia Brivio.
2010:-FESTARTE, VIDEO ART INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL: INVISIBILE VIOLENCE; La Pelanda, MACRO (MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART
ROME), Roma.
-IMMAGINARI VIDEO, VIDEO ART SHOW, curated by Martina Coletti, Gualdo Tadino, Pg.
-VISIONARIO-RESERVOIR DOGS, audiovisual from Galleria Comunale di Arte Moderna di Monfalcone, FESTIVAL BIANCO E NERO, curated Andrea
Bruciati e Eva Comuzzi Udine.
-VIDEOMED, BEEING DIFFERENT IS ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL, FONDAZIONE MERZ, Torino.

-AVVERTENZE GENERALI, MERCATI DI TRAIANO, MUSEO DEI FORI IMPERIALI, ROME, CURATED BY ANDREA FOGLI.
2009: -CORPI NARRANTI: I SENSI DELLA LETTURA, SALA LETTURA DELLA BIBLIOTECA D’ARTE, CASTELLO SFORZESCO, cuated by Cristina
Crivellin and Casva ( High visual art studies centre) MILANO, ITALY.
-APERITIVI D’ARTE al BAR CAMPONESCHI, Piazza Farnese, Roma, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva.
-MILANO IN DIGITALE, FABBRICA DEL VAPORE, selected project show, curated by Cristina Crivellin. Milano
-SALON PRIMO, FABBRICA DEL VAPORE, curated by Brera Art Accademy, Milano.
-EMOTIONS IN MOTIONS, STARS, UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECNOLOGY OF THE ARTS, BRESCIA. ITALY
-L’ALTRA LEI, FEMALE CINEMA, CHIASSO, SWITZERLAND, CURATED BY ALINA MARRAZZI.
-VISIONIVIDEO,ARTVERONA, presented by Galleria Fabio Paris, curated by Mariarosa Sossai
-FIAV, FESTIVAL D’IMAGES ARTISTIQUES VIDEO, Ecole superiore desBeaux-Artes, selected by Mario Gorni. ALGERI,
-VIDEO REPORT.GALLERIA COMUNALE DI ARTE CONTEMPORANEA DI MONFALCONE, selected by Andrea Lissoni, a cura di Andrea Bruciati
2008:--CORPI E GUSCI, Esposta gallery, curated by di Barbara Verzini, Verona.
-COLLECTIVE SHOW curated by Claudia Maina, Pinacoteca di VaralloPombia (No). COLLECTIVE SHOW curated by Claudia Maina, Pinacoteca di Varallo-
Pombia (No).
-CORTO DAMS FESTIVAL, Torino.
-CYBORG FESTIVAL, Anghiari.
-INVENTAUNFILM, , Lenola, (Latina).
-ARCIPELAGO FILM FESTIVAL, Roma
-UNIMOVIE VIDEO FESTIVAL, secondo premio, Firenze.
PERSONAL EXIBITION 2006: -RIVELAZIONE DI UN MONDO, Galleria Cidac, Brescia .
AWARDS :
-2010: FIRST PRICE: METROCUBO, by 400metriquadrigallery, Ancona, Italy
-2010: SIGNORINI PRICE, selected, Milano, Italy
-2006: FIRST PRICE SALON PRIMO competition and exibition: selection of students from Accademy of art di Brera in Museo della Permanente, Milano.
2003: PRICE FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE VIDEO in the category human landscape at: Festival filmmaker, Milano, category Paesaggi umani, price for
the video of animating draws: Amulwahk
BIBLIOGRAPHY
FLASH ART N.273 Dicembre 08 – Gennaio 09; dizionario degli artisti.
FLASH ART; pittura: lingua morta o terrorismo culturale, intervento di Andrea Lissoni; ottobre 2008
EXIBART, nuovi nuovi nuovi, a cura di Milovan Farronato, ottobre 2008.