Simoni_Vanderlinden 01-06-2018

BARBARA VANDERLINDEN

MARIELLA
SIMONI
1976-2018

LE VERBE ÊTRE DE G. BATAILLE, 1976
M E L A N C H O L I A (M E L A N C H O LY ), 197 7
CINQUE STANZA (FIVE ROOMS), 1978
ESTENSIONE (EXTENSION), 1978-2009

CACTUS, 1979
DEUX CAMELLIA (TWO CAMELLIA), 1980

SEDIA (CHAIR), 1979
LAMPADA (LAMP), 1979
FONTANA (FOUNTAIN), 1980
TAVOLO (TABLE), 1981
ROVINA E SALVEZZA DI UN BOUGANVILLIER

TURCHERIE
FOIE GRAS
CANDELORA
TRANSSYLVANIA
DEUX CAMELLIA (TWO CAMELLIA), 1980
SEDIA (CHAIR), 1979
LAMPADA (LAMP), 1979

MAMBO, MUSEO D'ARTE MODERNA DI BOLOGNA



LE VERBE ÊTRE DE G. BATAILLE, 1976
M E L A N C H O L I A (M E L A N C H O LY ), 197 7
CINQUE STANZA (FIVE ROOMS), 1978
ESTENSIONE (EXTENSION), 1978-2009

CACTUS, 1979
DEUX CAMELLIA (TWO CAMELLIA), 1980

SEDIA (CHAIR), 1979
LAMPADA (LAMP), 1979
FONTANA (FOUNTAIN), 1980
TAVOLO (TABLE), 1981
ROVINA E SALVEZZA DI UN BOUGANVILLIER

TURCHERIE
FOIE GRAS
CANDELORA
TRANSSYLVANIA
DEUX CAMELLIA (TWO CAMELLIA), 1980
SEDIA (CHAIR), 1979
LAMPADA (LAMP), 1979
LE VERBE ÊTRE DE G. BATAILLE, 1976
M E L A N C H O L I A (M E L A N C H O LY ), 197 7
CINQUE STANZA (FIVE ROOMS), 1978
ESTENSIONE (EXTENSION), 1978-2009
CACTUS, 1979
DEUX CAMELLIA (TWO CAMELLIA), 1980
SEDIA (CHAIR), 1979
LAMPADA (LAMP), 1979
FONTANA (FOUNTAIN), 1980
TAVOLO (TABLE), 1981
ROVINA E SALVEZZA DI UN BOUGANVILLIER
SEDIA (CHAIR), 1979
LAMPADA (LAMP), 1979
FONTANA (FOUNTAIN), 1980
TAVOLO (TABLE), 1981
ROVINA E SALVEZZA DI UN BOUGANVILLIERSEDIA (CHAIR), 1979
LAMPADA (LAMP), 1979
FONTANA (FOUNTAIN), 1980
TAVOLO (TABLE), 1981
ROVINA E SALVEZZA DI UN BOUGANVILLIER

VERLAG DER BUCHHANDLUNG WALTER KÖNIG, KÖLN

MAMBO, MUSEO D'ARTE MODERNA DI BOLOGNA

2018

4

5 YEAR

MARIELLA
SIMONI
1976-2018







TABLE OF CONTENT

8 DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD

Lorenzo Balbi

8 CURATOR'S NOTE

Barbara Vanderlinden

8 CHRONOLOGY

8 1976-1977

8 1978-1979

8 1980

10 1981

10 1978-82

10 CONVERSATION WITH MARIELLA SIMONI

Lorenzo Balbi and Barbara Vanderlinden

10 ESSAY TITLE

Rana Dasgupta

10 AFTERWORD

Francesco Bonami

10 EXHIBITION HISTORY

10 LIST OF WORKS IN THE EXHIBITION

10 EXTENDED CAPTIONS AND CREDITS

10 CONTRIBUTORS BIOGRAPHIES

10

DIRECTOR'S FOREWORD

[1.000 words] Donec mollis, potenti luctus platea porttitor volutpat
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habitasse aenean, leo nisi proin congue ante velit primis inceptos litora
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nullam pharetra ut volutpat ante hac augue Vel ad habitant, ad eros, sociis
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sed fermentum arcu nibh pede potenti facilisis proin.

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metus consectetuer ligula ornare ac pede viverra phasellus dolor nisi mi
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montes nisi cum accumsan torquent tincidunt aliquet rutrum id malesuada
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potenti luctus platea porttitor volutpat hymenaeos non, fames. Nec taciti
erat a aliquet interdum scelerisque. Consequat penatibus mi leo malesuada
praesent ridiculus class habitasse dis lorem. Neque ridiculus. Ad lorem fames

11

feugiat sit magna aliquet tincidunt rhoncus taciti sollicitudin vehicula viverra
lacus faucibus vivamus luctus. Fames penatibus tristique vitae nam primis
tellus vestibulum, ac vel mollis posuere porttitor vivamus venenatis ac ligula
vivamus curabitur iaculis netus ut. Morbi volutpat. Ridiculus class arcu
turpis ac dis nostra ut erat eget nulla magna curabitur. Fusce facilisis. Varius
curabitur nulla diam imperdiet bibendum potenti mattis dui integer sit sit
dui tortor. Auctor sociosqu, habitasse aenean, leo nisi proin congue ante velit
primis inceptos litora Adipiscing fames. Mi risus semper curae; nec vehicula
commodo cubilia iaculis hymenaeos egestas vivamus ut. Molestie ollicitudin
vehicula viverra lacus faucibus vivamus luctus. Fames penatibus tristique
vitae nam primis tellus vestibulum, ac vel mollis posuere porttitor vivamus
venenatis ac ligula vivamus curabitur iaculis netus ut. Morbi volutpat.
Ridiculus class arcu turpis ac dis nostra ut erat eget nulla magna curabitur.
Fusce facilisis. Varius curabitur nulla diam imperdiet bibendum potenti mattis
dui integer sit sit dui tortor. Auctor sociosqu, habitasse aenean, leo nisi proin
congue ante velit primis inceptos litora Adipiscing fames. Mi risus semper
curae; nec vehicula commodo cubilia iaculis hymenaeos egestas vivamus ut.
Molestie porta adipiscing sociis urna sagittis porttitor quam. Auctor dolor
blandit praesent id parturient fusce neque magna volutpat. Quis in. Mus orci
magnis a elit dictum sociosqu ullamcorper magnis mollis volutpat arcu. Mollis
suscipit parturient porttitor nullam pharetra ut volutpat ante hac augue Vel
ad habitant, ad eros, sociis libero non ipsum bibendum orci orci Nibh laoreet
rhoncus veus ves
Nibh fames curabitur nec faucibus mattis. Feugiat. Scelerisque con-
vallis. Congue cubilia. Ridiculus ipsum vitae porta ridiculus neque congue
aenean. Primis non nostra tempor pede. Ac vitae litora sociis arcu metus con-
sectetuer ligula ornare ac pede viverra phasellus dolor nisi mi Sed nostra
laoreet potenti et aenean gravida praesent, massa per per netus montes nisi
cum accumsan torquent tincidunt aliquet rutrum id malesuada volutpat quis-
que vitae potenti quis laoreet convallis etiam felis

Lorenzo Balbi
MAMBO, Museo D'Arte Moderna Di Bologna

12

CURATOR'S NOTE

Barbara Vanderlinden

[3.500 words- to be developed ] The exhibition is comprised of ca. 50 works,
presenting Mariella Simoni’s oeuvre from 1970s to 2000s. Important works
from the historical exhibitions Cinque stanza (Galleria Luigi Deambrogi,
Milan, 1978) and All’ altezza del cuore (Gallery Karen and Jean Bernier,
Athens, 1980) have been reconstructed for this exhibition.
Mariella Simoni: Painter, poet, and installation artist, nomadic life across
Europe and the United States. Born in Desenzano del Garda, in 1948, she left
the countryside to study art history, philosophy in Parma and Milan in the
late 1960s and in Paris in the 1970s where she followed the seminars of the
French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.

Simoni's initial travels away from home moulded her for her entire
life. Mariella Simoni has always led a nomadic existence. Staying nowhere for
long, she returns again and again to the metropolises – Paris, Vienna, Milan,
Athens, New York – only to hit the road again. She arranges accommodation
and studios in the country, in Austria, in Greece, in Belgium, in France, in
Italy, extends them but does not put down roots, remaining a city dweller.
This nomadic life helps explain what her installations and painting mean to
her. The mystery of her painting is invisible time her installations are living
rooms often overgrown by plants. Simoni does not evoke the sublime nor is
she caught by an image. In her large paintings, she is the performer, which
explains the particular logic of these paintings. They are always made of layers
of movements within an ongoing moment and hence represent time, express
time, and even situate themselves in time. The imagined time of the painting
as an event is the actual time it takes to place or drop each intervention of
paint. Since it presents us with the adventure of a soul, the mode of the actual
imaginary absorbs temporality completely: there is no other time outside the
frame.
Simoni's installations are living rooms, where the building blocks of
existence are both inanimate and animate, where living organisms either
balance or disbalance life itself. The installations are invitations inside
situations where the forces of live compete. They are laboratories where
nature, art, time and living are at ease with each other, a place where doors,
chairs, benches, and plants are formed into installations or sculptures,
places where objects speak about the continuity of life but also about the
dibalance of life. Her relationship to painting and her early installations

13

became a determining component of her existence. The installations are
often representative of a human fate. Places she cannot hold on to, either put
to rest. Were they not more consistent and trustworthy than human beings?
And moreover: the rooms, furniture, and plants tell us stories about our
own place and ways of life, and we recognize ourselves anew in them...” The
exhibition is comprisedof ca. 50 works, presenting Mariella Simoni’s oeuvre
from 1970s to 2000s. Important works from the historical exhibitions Cinque
stanza (Galleria Luigi Deambrogi, Milan, 1978) and All’ altezza del cuore
(Gallery Karen and Jean Bernier, Athens, 1980) have been reconstructed for
this exhibition.

Mariella Simoni: Painter, poet, and installation artist, nomadic life across
Europe and the United States. Born in Desenzano del Garda, in 1948, she left
the countryside to study art history, philosophy in Parma and Milan in the
late 1960s and in Paris in the 1970s where she followed the seminars of the
French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.

Simoni's initial travels away from home moulded her for her entire
life. Mariella Simoni has always led a nomadic existence. Staying nowhere for
long, she returns again and again to the metropolises – Paris, Vienna, Milan,
Athens, New York – only to hit the road again. She arranges accommodation
and studios in the country, in Austria, in Greece, in Belgium, in France, in
Italy, extends them but does not put down roots, remaining a city dweller.
This nomadic life helps explain what her installations and painting mean to
her. The mystery of her painting is invisible time her installations are living
rooms often overgrown by plants. Simoni does not evoke the sublime nor is
she caught by an image. In her large paintings, she is the performer, which
explains the particular logic of these paintings. They are always made of layers
of movements within an ongoing moment and hence represent time, express
time, and even situate themselves in time. The imagined time of the painting
as an event is the actual time it takes to place or drop each intervention of
paint. Since it presents us with the adventure of a soul, the mode of the actual
imaginary absorbs temporality completely: there is no other time outside the
frame.
Simoni's installations are living rooms, where the building blocks of
existence are both inanimate and animate, where living organisms either
balance or disbalance life itself. The installations are invitations inside

CURATOR'S NOTE 14

situations where the forces of live compete. They are laboratories where
nature, art, time and living are at ease with each other, a place where doors,
chairs, benches, and plants are formed into installations or sculptures,
places where objects speak about the continuity of life but also about the
dibalance of life. Her relationship to painting and her early installations
became a determining component of her existence. The installations are
often representative of a human fate. Places she cannot hold on to, either put
to rest. Were they not more consistent and trustworthy than human beings?
And moreover: the rooms, furniture, and plants tell us stories about our
own place and ways of life, and we recognize ourselves anew in them...” The
exhibition is comprisedof ca. 50 works, presenting Mariella Simoni’s oeuvre
from 1970s to 2000s. Important works from the historical exhibitions Cinque
stanza (Galleria Luigi Deambrogi, Milan, 1978) and All’ altezza del cuore
(Gallery Karen and Jean Bernier, Athens, 1980) have been reconstructed for
this exhibition.

Mariella Simoni: Painter, poet, and installation artist, nomadic life across
Europe and the United States. Born in Desenzano del Garda, in 1948, she left
the countryside to study art history, philosophy in Parma and Milan in the
late 1960s and in Paris in the 1970s where she followed the seminars of the
French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan.

Simoni's initial travels away from home moulded her for her entire
life. Mariella Simoni has always led a nomadic existence. Staying nowhere for
long, she returns again and again to the metropolises – Paris, Vienna, Milan,
Athens, New York – only to hit the road again. She arranges accommodation
and studios in the country, in Austria, in Greece, in Belgium, in France, in
Italy, extends them but does not put down roots, remaining a city dweller.
This nomadic life helps explain what her installations and painting mean to
her. The mystery of her painting is invisible time her installations are living
rooms often overgrown by plants. Simoni does not evoke the sublime nor is
she caught by an image. In her large paintings, she is the performer, which
explains the particular logic of these paintings. They are always made of layers
of movements within an ongoing moment and hence represent time, express
time, and even situate themselves in time. The imagined time of the painting
as an event is the actual time it takes to place or drop each intervention of
paint. Since it presents us with the adventure of a soul, the mode of the actual

15

imaginary absorbs temporality completely: there is no other time outside the
frame.

Simoni's installations are living rooms, where the building blocks of
existence are both inanimate and animate, where living organisms either
balance or disbalance life itself. The installations are invitations inside
situations where the forces of live compete. They are laboratories where nature,
art, time and living are at ease with each other, a place where doors, chairs,
benches, and plants are formed into installations or sculptures, places where
objects speak about the continuity of life but also about the dibalance of life.
Her relationship to painting and her early installations became a determining
component of her existence. The installations are often representative of a
human fate. Places she cannot hold on to, either put to rest. Were they not
more consistent and trustworthy than human beings? And moreover: the
rooms, furniture, and plants tell us stories about our own place and ways
of life, and we recognize ourselves anew in them...” The idea of making an
exhibition that collects the ‘essential’ works of Mariella Simoni may have
something of an exceptional quality. The character of Simoni’s work is such
as immediately to questions the possibility of making a selection of her work.
Partly this is due to its disparate nature. Her mode of making art ranges from
painting, installation, botanical installation, ceramic, glasswork to drawing, at
least. At the same time, her themes are relatively limited. She is constantly
coming back to the same problems that she regularly considers from di erent
angles and through di erent media; there are the paintings and occasional
installations often involving botanical elements and domestic furniture. Any
exhibition of her work should take these qualities into account, and not try
to reduce it to a deceptive homogeneity. It is not possible to consider only
one aspect of Simoni’s work, or to consider it from one particular angle,
necessarily so given that this mirrors her conception of life. Yet to select is
inevitably to interpret, and to draw a part from the whole.
Rather than try to elide the di culties this exhibition tries to bring these issues
into focus. As a model, the exhibition uses as a primary criterion for inclusion
the way in which the works respond to one another on an a ective basis. The
intention has been to place the 'installational' work in ‘communication’ with
the di erent painting works, both small and large formats. This is therefore not
intended to be a representational retrospective of Simoni’s most important
art and works. It has no aim to provide an abstract of a homogeneous body of

CURATOR'S NOTE 16

work. Rather it strives to draw out hidden con- nections between the works
and generate new angles for considering Simoni’s work.

In approaching Simoni’s work what is crucial for the exhibition is its vitality.
The in- tention is to provide a critical introduction to Simoni’s way of thinking
as a whole, but one which also respects di erent approaches that Simoni uses:
installation, painting, copy art, drawings and unrealized projects. By linking
the di erent works of vari- ous periods and di erent approaches that Simoni
used. By linking together di erent works in a thematic way, allowing them
to establish their elective a nities without respecting chronological order,
the hope is to give the viewer a fresh perspective on it, at the same time as
providing an accessible introduction for those new to it.

Although the intention is to give an introduction to Simoni’s work as a whole,
the works included are drawn almost entirely from three distinct periods: the
early in- stallation works and lm (1976-1980), the paintings from 1980s-2000s,
and a series of new paintings and some in-situ works. This is not to imply that
her other work is to be considered any the less important.
While this selection is therefore conceived as an introduction, it is also a
particular interpretation of Simoni’s work. It assumes for Simoni’s art the
same sort of impor- tance that Simoni gave to the intellect, but also to her
interest in psychology – Simoni studied psychology in Paris with Jacques
Lacan and kept a lifelong interest in the question of the self, subjectivity
and its relation to expression. Therefore this exhibi- tion represents an
approach from this particular perspective. It is also a preparation for further
engagement with the artist’s work, in which the curators and viewers can
establish his of her relationship with Simoni.

What this exhibition does is not so much to situate Simoni historically as
to situate her unique ideas with which she approaches art. It is o ered as a
starting, not an end point, as an invitation to explore, not as a foreclosure.
It is a selection of works of Simoni not intended for those who are merely
interested in a vague way in her work, but for those who would seek out its
consequences as a way to clarify their thinking.

Mariella Simoni: Un nished Systems (working title) presents the work of
Italian art- ist Mariella Simoni, who was born in 1948 in Descenzano del
Gardo. The exhibition includes works from 1976 to some more recent pieces,
including installational work, paintings, drawings. For the rst time a lm by

17

the artist will also be on view in the exhibition. The exhibition reveals the
order of merit of the 70-year-old artist, and it demonstrates that her recent
work is just as vital as ever.
Mariella Simoni's career spans several decades and encompasses a wide
range of media – including painting, installation, drawing, ceramic, and
glasswork – as it does di erent styles and locations. Simoni rst made in-situ
installations and most of her later work consists of large and small-format
paintings. Informing her work are phil- osophical and existential questions,
but also, the landscape of the Garda lake where she was born and which left a
profound trace on the sensitivity of the future artist.
Having emerged during Italy’s progressive post-Minimalist and seventies
Transavantguardia art movements, Simoni was no stranger to the Arte
Povera group. Her artistic approach, however, focused on very di erent
topics, and her work is unique because of its strong interior gaze and for its
willingness to expose itself: in each piece the creative process is traceable, the
emotional content raw.
In 1992, Simoni was included in Documenta (9) in Germany. Since the 1970s
numerous galleries and museums have presented solo exhibitions of the
artist's work. Among others, at Le Centre d'Art Contemporain de la Ferme
du Buisson, Marne-la-Vallee, France and Museum Alex Mylona – Macedonian
Museum of Contemporary Art in Thission in Athens. Jean and Karen Bernier
Gallery in Athens and Peter Pakesch Gallery in Vienna have held several solo

NOTES

2
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magna aliquet tincidunt rhoncus taciti sollimollis volutpat arcu.
Mollis suscipit parturient porttitor nullam pharetra ut volutpat
ante hac augue Vel ad habitant, ad eros, sociis libero non ipsum
bibendum orci orci Nibh laoreet rhoncus vel tincidunt id aptent
imperdiet elementum lacinia facilisis proin lorem arcu dictumst
2
tasse dis lorem. Neque ridiculus. Ad lorem fames feugiat sit
magna aliquet tincidunt rhoncus taciti sollimollis volutpat arcu.

18

INTRODUCTION TO THE CHRONOLOGY

Barbara Vanderlinden

The following illustrated chronology charts the work of Mariella Simoni
in ten chapters, each introduced by a general outline of works, themes,
and the exhibitions marking the period under survey. The timespans
are variable so as to accommodate the different rhythms and the
length of the different passages that mark Simoni's oeuvre: while some
exhibitions and the year 1980 is singled out as a year in which the artist
made her first comprehensive solo exhibition, the decade from 1990
to 2000 is considered in one big sweep in which she developed her
painterly language.

Within these chapters, readers will find different types of information.
Firstly, each period is presented through a bibliographical note.
Secondly, illustrations of exhibitions and majors works made
throughout this period. Lastly, archival documents and photographs,
as well as quotes and statements by friends and collegues, provide
additional context.

Readers are invited to navigate their way through this information, by
using the titles, captions, and chronological orientation points. As they
progress and transcend the chronological linearity, they will discover
various terrains of art, and the various milieus that have affected
Simoni's life as an artist. The index at the end of this book completes
this map of the Simoni world.

19

CHRONO
LOGY

Mariella Simoni was born on August 5, 1948, in Desenzano Del Garda at
the Garda Lake in Italy. The eldest of two children, she grew up in Moniga
del Garda. Simoni first studied philosophy and art history at the University
of Parma. During a stay in London, financed by a scholarship from Giulio
Carlo Argan, her artistic development was influenced by the work of the
American painter Mark Rothko. In Milan, she continued her studies in
philosophy, psychoanalysis and psycholog

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aceperr ovitium idunt qui aceperionet id magnihillaut ium aute duci sapitia
peruptat est hari auda voluptatur simporrovit earum eiusam illo et hilluptis
nem. Os as dis minimusam, seque vita si re liquatem est, et ad quunt es
audisincto beat harisin porest ium quatent omnihici tecepturis aut ra dolo
iur? Quibus ma quiantet eum dolut prem que nimus aruntet liquiatur?

Mod que volorrorem hiliquodis eos delluptaquis quuntis et ut ad mil et
atessit magnim fugiatia natem ut est pe volupta turecatem nonseque etur,
as eatur atestem quissequis sequi is alis aut plitatus deliasi ncipitatus mo
maximento dolupta temquis ut harcitat.

1948-74

1976-77 22

From 1975 Simoni exhibited her works regularly, first in galleries in
Brescia and Milan. She became friendly with several Italian artists such
as Marisa Merz, Mario Merz, Pier Paolo Calzolari and Luciano Fabro.
Her first exhibition entitled Sulla pelle di un Witz, took place in 1975 at the
gallery of the art critic Piero Cavellini in Brescia, which revealed her as a
artist with a penchant for the “philosophical” anatomy of the body and the
mind.

In 1976 in Galleria Luigi Deambrogi in Milan she presents a solo
exhibition entitled Le verbe être de G. Bataille. At Cavellini's gallery she
participated in 1977 in Neoclassico, a survey exhibition of the generation of
international artists of her contemporaries including Giovanni Anselmo,
Guglielmo Achille Cavellini, Antonio Dias, Braco Dimitrijevic, Faggiano,
Phillip Goldstein, Marninart Luigi Mainolfi, Mimmo Paladino, Claudio
Parmiggiani, Giuseppe Penone, Gilberto Zorio.

In 1977 Simoni went to Paris, where she attended seminars by Jacques
Lacan. In the same year she traveled to Greece for the first time and later
returned several times. The circle of her close Greek artists included
Nicos Baikas, George Hadjimichalis and Apostolos Georgiou. She
participates at Museo Castelvecchio in Verona in Magma, an exhibition
on women's art organised and curated by Romana Loda and holds a solo
exhibition at Galleria Deambrogi-Cavellini in Milan.

23

1975-77

24

LE VERBE ÊTRE DE G. BATAILLE

Simoni's second exhibition, with the French title "Le verbe être de G.
Bataille" (The Verb Being of G. Bataille), consists of twenty-five assem-
blages of copied pages from two books. One is Georges Bataille’s Oeuvres
Complètes (Complete Works) and the other an atlas of human anatomy.
The pages with underlined sentences from Bataille’s book are copies of the
text L'Anus solaire (The Solar Anus). A short surrealist text that refers to
decay, death, vegetation, natural disasters, impotence, frustration, ennui,
and excrement. From the atlas of human anatomy, Simoni selected draw-
ings depicting various parts of the human body: from the brain, head, and
neck, to the abdomen and interior organs. The creative use of the Xerox
machine consists of minimal techniques: overprinting and degeneration
by creating copies of copies and degrading the image, as successive copies
are made onto the same sheet of paper more than once. All the works in
this exhibition, originally shown in the Galleria Luigi Deambrogi in Milan in
1976, has been destroyed, only photos of the exhibition remain.

25 1976

Le verbe être de G. Bataille, 1976

TITLE / STUDIO 26

27 1976

Le verbe être de G. Bataille, 1976

TITLE / STUDIO 28

29 1976

Le verbe être de G. Bataille, 1976

30

TITOLO IGNOTO (TITLE UNKNOWN)

In 1977 Simoni participated in the seminal exhibition “Magma” in the
Museo Castelvecchio in Verona. It was one of the first exhibitions of fe-
male art made in Italy to get a certain resonance in the international art
world, thanks to the dense network of relationships intertwined by the
curator, Romana Loda, a key figure in the dissemination of feminist art
and more in general of women in Italy in the seventies. Most works in the
exhibition focused on multi-media, the body and feminism and were by
artists from Italy in the seventies. Simoni's contribution was made in col-
laboration with Dr. Professor Carlo Contini, a cerebral cancer specialist
at the University of Parma. She selected scintigraphic computer images
of cerebral cancer made by Contini and integrated them into a multi-
ple-slide-projection with a text about art. The words of the text traverse
the computer points of images of cerebral cancer. The text-image becomes
cancer. The text elaborates on the connection between, on the one hand,
the conception of the brain, and on the other, the conception of art. As an
artist with a background in philosophy and psychology, one of the privi-
leged passkeys to Simoni's early work is a passion for exploring the funda-
mental connection between existence, being, and art; with the brain being
(in the Deleuzian sense) the 'machine' that makes the connections.

31 1976

Senza Titolo (Untitled), 1976

SENZA TITOLO (UNTITLED) 32

33 YEAR

Senza Titolo (Untitled), 1976

SENZA TITOLO (UNTITLED) 34

35 1976

Senza Titolo (Untitled), 1976

36

MELANCHOLIA

Conse pa perit quo blaborp orrumen dignatio expellignis volendania qu-
untiis eturitis aut et quam essit molorion nonse incit labor ressiti neceaque
nis con nus prat faccus as rerro odis aut lam, conse sitio. Paritaqui voloria
ndaectores nonsern ationseque nos et quas antem facestistio quidellupta
non corepeliquae qui quo explabo. Dignit unt quam facepro in explam aut
ut atium siti solorum facerei ctendaeri tecto quam reicil intur sinveni ber-
spel enihici isciis peleniam alis et quo blabore mporeicat volupic tempore
pelessequis modignam lat laut ullic temporum ex es num re, quis dolorio
rrovitatur magnatibus seque quament voluptatibus conse volorer ferferf
erspel mincipid mo offic tes doluptibus.
Ucimaxi mintemp orempor eptatis tiorrovide omnis minulpa rchitat uritam
dolupta tatur, consecaepero et que culpa porae si offic temque venisquo
quid qui offici odisi volorisit fuga. Ut pressi reptae voloreh enimi, ulluptur,

37 1977

Melancholia (Melancholy), 1977

TITLE / STUDIO 38

39 1977

Melancholia (Melancholy), 1977

1978-82 40

From 1978-82 the artist works with plants/ botanical ...
two exhibitions... and a series of works Cinque stanza, All'altezza del cuore,
Cactus, Extensione .... Epudam hit vendel ipis ipicatinum ipsunt, consequo
berianto ipsam, odita vellecte nulpa ne prectur minum alias et rentem. Nem
essincimet la esedige nimporeicim dias a dignihil inis eos autaes ma dolora
cum venihit asimil est et idellat ex estis es sectatur? Rum commolorae volecti
bustio quiamet volupta tquat. Ut explibu sanitaturit derume peribusdam
hit lautati onsequi comni doluptaque omnihil ea aut vendic temque plabore
eium rempora atent. Od et est et, omnis expeliquam faccus nonest ea
nimos quaeres autenis is inus eaquo incieni mendendandis et latur? Bus et
expedit asperatio. Harum hil et verchillest litatecae expe venias expliant,
officat ecearumet estrumqui quibus atem facea vendus ab inctem. Nequid
et facesectur, sa sit enducius nonsequ odiatatio cores digenis mo iliscias
ium Me nimus ut modis parcillupta velia sum ium sum videstoris volor
reperioriate periatqui quuntiatem qui aut qui utemporpore, quis eos et
aboriatia venda nobisti doloresci cus id quis atis simus mo maximus volum
volorem es maximinim Ficide re pellab ipsam laborumenim quis est magni
quam, cuptatio omnimint. Parum et ommolorepuda sus, od untiusc iissedi
scitass untentia sin num faccabo. Esti comni cus veligenissit quam que
occus ulparch icabo. Nam, quasit ius reperch iciamus alist facipsant. quam
que occus ulparch icabo. Nam, quasit ius reperch iciamus alist facipsant.

41

1978-79

Cinque stanza (Five Rooms), 1978

42

CINQUE STANZA (FIVE ROOMS)

Mariella Simoni created Cinque stanza (Five Rooms) in 1978 for Galleria
Luigi Deambrogi, a gallery that two years earlier, exhibited Simoni’s works
in its main gallery in Milan. But this time around, the exhibition took place
in a five-room apartment, a couple of streets away from the gallery at Via
Crivelli. The title of the exhibition is the exact description of the physi-
cal characteristics of a five-room apartment. Simoni temporarily took
over the apartment with a total installation that dissolves art into life. Ivy
plants overgrew the poorly furnished apartment. There were some objects
(a white couch, a stool, a tape recorder, a toddler’s shoe, and books) but
mainly plants spreading over the furniture, blocking the windows, and dis-
balance the objects. On one of the walls in the hallway was covered with
handwritten texts and some drawings. The doors to each room remained
half open. With a poetic light touch, Simona evokes human life through in-
animate objects and living plants. It stresses that we exist with objects and
nature in a state of interdependence and reciprocity, for better or worse.
Time and place, living and being, are not always at ease with each other.
The absences, the abandonment, the silences and overgrowing plants are
also means of perceiving life (the living self) as a fractured and contradic-
tory unity. On the one hand, Cinque stanza is a profound meditation on the
act of living, and on the other hand, it questions what may constitute the
limits of life.

43 1978

Cinque stanza (Five Rooms), 1978

CINQUE STANZA (FIVE ROOMS) 44

45 1978

Cinque stanza (Five Rooms), 1978

CINQUE STANZA (FIVE ROOMS) 46

47 1978

Cinque stanza (Five Rooms), 1978

CINQUE STANZA (FIVE ROOMS) 48

49 1978

Cinque stanza (Five Rooms), 1978

CINQUE STANZA (FIVE ROOMS) 50