LISA MARA BATACCHI

Statement

I’m an Italian/American artist born in Florence (IT). With a training back-ground in fashion design I have worked for several years as a design-er for various fashion companies, of which more significant, Vivienne Westwood Ltd. (2003-05). In that period, after a trip to Cambodia, I had an intense epiphany regards my aspirations in life and decided to dedicate myself to projects that privilege the relationship and the social value of the artistic experience. My poetics tends to bring to light emo-tional bonds between individuals and society by giving attention to the most subtle variations, to the randomness of life, to dreams, prophecies and to not aware daily actions. Following mostly an anthropological ap-proach, I investigate and document an identity both personal and col-lective, relating to local or transnational issues, by costructing devices that can lead to new possible forms of interactions and thoughts. My works, which range from writing, drawing, filming, photography, perfor-mances, installations, public art interventions, are mostly long term proj-ects that need to grow little by little and unfold between stories where the private can become public and vice versa. Since 2007 I have some-times used textile materials as relational tools but starting from 2013 I focused more and more deeply on the recovery of textile techniques and related hidden idealistic thoughts, cults and philosophies that are slowly but drammatically disappearing in the globalized culture of the 21st century, both between oriental and western culture. Pursuing this direction, I have established relations of cooperation with particular com-munities and ethnic minorities starting from Italy, to Bombay in India, to Mongolia and South China. By learning and observing from them, I have entered a “state of discretion” by practicing manual ancestral technics that necessitate of slow ritualistic gestures, hard work and a true living experience within the community. These signs become for me as secret and sacred messages that can be reinterpreted and liberated into the world to keep us more aware of the delicate balance between heaven / earth and humanity / cosmos.

THE TIME OF DISCRETION

This work is an long term project which will be composed of “vanishing actions”, performances, installations located or inspired by areas around the world where traditions are still alive in favor of the timeless. In parallel to this, also video material and writings will be gathered becoming films and a books, both divided into different topics, as an attempt to cover idealistically, with thought, spirituality, humor, sensuality, resistance, provoca-tion, the years to complete our century starting from re-imagining our present and predicting a fictional future.

The first chapter of The time of discretion, began in 2016 with the invitation to the Land Art Mongolia Biennale “Finding the axis between sky and earth”. Before arriving in Mongolia, I have traveled in Inner Mongolia from Ordos to Hohhot, to Beijing and finally to Guizhou, a village located in South West China, a landlocked moun-tainous territory, home of some of the most distinctive «Chinese Ethnic Minority Groups». Among them, the Hmong tribe, well known for the craftsmanship displayed in their textiles, grow their own fibers and the Indigo plant which is necessary to prepare the dye. In their tincture tanks the women recognize sacred signs that can reunite them, once they dye, with their ancestors and their lands of origin, Siberia and north of Mongolia.I was interested to experience living with them in a remote village practicing slowness and exploring a critique of globalized culture through an ecstatic form of temporary disappearance from capitalistic world wide ideolo-gy. Pursuing this direction, establishing relations of cooperation with the community and “entering discretion”, I gave new meanings to the Miao traditional indigo color dye by creating a stage curtain with different shadings of blue...

Before leaving for China/Mongolia I have asked the I-Ching Oracle a question on the future of our world from now to the end of this century:

“Dear Oracle, will human beings, during this century, be able to decrease from this accelerating materialism freeing themselves from the chains of the capitalistic major vision of our time reconnecting with predestination of our life and of our planet?”.I interpreteted the I-Ching answer (Hexagram 40 and Hexagram 2) as a difficult moment for the world today where we can not hope for great changes. We will have to wait for a liberating rain that will bring forth new seeds on earth that will sprout again in the future; And yet the world of our century will be able to rise again with another aura if humanity succeeds in progressing in society with a new equilibrium. To do this it suggests human beings to seek out the spiritual creative energy of a “horse”, that represents the egoic male impetus, balanced with the female devotional character of a “cow” and her spacial energy that can nourish our planet.

From the I-Ching’s response I saw some key elements that accompanied and guided me on my journey, lo-oking for coincidences with certain indications of this ancient Taoist text...

Still from THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Chapter 1 (movie), 2016-2018

Inspired by astrologic signs from the Five Pagoda Temple, Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China, 2016

Still from THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Chapter 1 (movie), 2016-2018Inspired by a Taoist ritual in Danzhai village, 2016

Working on the stage curtain fabric with the Hmong tribe, Danzhai, Guizhou region, China

End of July - Mid August, 2016

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Preparatory scketch of the stage curtain, 2016Pencil on acquarel paper, 36x26 cm, white wooden frame, glass.

Working together with Lala, a Hmong woman. Drawing on fabric by tracing the lines from the paper model below.

Working together with Hmong ladies tracing my pencil drawing on the fabric with hot wax.

Still from THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Chapter 1 (movie), 2016-2018On the left side Gioia, a friend who came for few days to help to interact with the Hmong tribe by translating for me from Chinese to English.

Still from THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Chapter 1 (movie), 2016-2018Immersing the curtain fabric several times to create the different shadings of blue.

LAND ART MONGOLIA BIENNALE

FINDING THE AXIS BETWEEN SKY AND EARTH

Curated by Valentina Gioia Levy

AUGUST 21st - SEPTEMBER 10th, 2016

At the center of the curtain there is an image of an astral animal, a mix between a male horse and a female cow which, as in the I-Ching that I previously consulted (Hexagram 40 that changes in exagram 2), is seen as a duality of coexisting qualities which have a liberating effect on human life. The horse refering to the Mongolian nomadic culture reflects on how it is progressivly becoming sedentary. On the other hand, “mobility“ nowadays has to recuperate “horizontality” rather than “verticality” as a chance to connect again the spiritual to the spatial, predestined, as in a prophecy, to beco-me again. By moving the stage curtain to specific areas of Dariganga, an area in South East of the Gobi desert, in particular ope-ning the scenario in front of the sacredness of Altan Ovoo’s area, secret suggestions have been liberated by the partici-pants into the sorrounding space appearing in a narrative and invisible way and widening out prospects and thoughts across countries, political boundaries, historical ideologies and economies.

Following, a photographic documentation of the performance

THE TIME OF DISCRETION, 2016Photographic print on Hahnemuhle fine art baryta paper, 100x70 cm, white wooden frame, glass. Edition of 3

THE TIME OF DISCRETION, 2016Photographic print on Hahnemuhle fine art baryta paper, 100x70 cm, white wooden frame, glass. Edition of 3

THE TIME OF DISCRETION, 2016Photographic print on Hahnemuhle fine art baryta paper, 100x70 cm, white wooden frame, glass. Edition of 3

THE TIME OF DISCRETION, 2016Photographic print on Hahnemuhle fine art baryta paper, 100x70 cm, white wooden frame, glass. Edition of 3

“THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Curtain”, 2016

Wooden structure (500 cm x 270 cm), 6 motorcycle mirrors, screws, cotton curtain fabric (490 cm x 320 cm), indigo color, wax, 6 cotton and silk strings each of 3 m long, 300 Chinese metal curtain hooks.

Practicing Slowness and Disappearance from Capitalistic Ideology - Contemporary Art Practices, Textiles and Embroideries in Anthropological Contexts

Visual Artists: Lisa Batacchi (Italo-American), Anna Mapoubi (Cameroun-France) In conversation with curator Valentina Gioia Levy

The conversation investigates how artists refer to traditional textile techniques in today's practices dealing with issues connected with the glo-bal changes. Since the ancient times, textile art and craft played a crucial role in human civilization worldwide dealing with social, economical and religious aspects of life. After the '60s textile, fabrics, clothes and embroideries were often used by female artists in reference to women issues. In latest years, more and more artists worldwide started to use these traditional medium for investigating post-capitalist and post-co-lonial issues. In particular the conversation will explore possible ways of resistance and criticisms of the capitalist economy. Taylor’s scientific management suggests new kinds of sustainable production which focuses on the making process and suggests the idea that traditional fabrics production is often a social action engaging communities and territories. The UNIDO’s report Changed Global Dynamics of Clothing and Textile Value Chains and the Impact on Sub-Sharan Africa said: “A key defining aspect of globalization in this new era is the production of manufactured components which are sold as inputs for other com-ponents and end up as final products; all linked and coordinated globally (Dicken, 1998).

As a result, in both the developed and developing countries, firms tend to sell less and less into the perfectly competitive markets of econo-mic theory, and more and more into global value chains (GVCs) which are regulated by predominantly external global firms (Kaplinsky, 2005). The global clothing and textiles sectors, par excellence, demonstrate these characteristics as “networks of production, distribution and mar-keting of particular products or groups of products” (Gibbon, 2003b: 1811).”

This global network of production, distribution and marketing often affects in a tremendous way the life of entire communities, especially those which were traditionally devoted to the production of cloth and textile.

In 2014 Lisa Batacchi worked in collaboration with the Gormati Banjaras, an Indian minoriety group who have worked traditionally with weaving and knitting and now live as manual casual labour in the slums of Bombay. More recently, in her project The time of discretion, she stayed between the Miao people in south-west China, learning the technique of indigo and wax decoration on silks. During her stay she investigates historical, sociological and religious aspects connected with the production of textile in Miao’s culture.

Anna Mapoubi is interested in historical and social aspects of different typologies of African textiles which are connected with individual and collective identities and memories, creolization and hybridity. During the conversation Anna is going to explain how her artistic practice deals with textiles and embroideries, digging into African symbolism and anthropological and sociological aspects within fabrics.

Valentina Gioia Levy

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. VANISHING ACTS #05

A performance by Lisa Batacchi curated by Valentina Gioia Levy, following a talk

During the 57th Venice Biennale, May 19th, 2017Arts & Globalization Pavilion, Palazzo Rossini.

>European Cultural Centre _ Program 2017>Arts & Globalization _ Program 2017

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Vanishing Acts #5, wax on raw silk fabric, indigo batik,149 x 200 cm, 2017

LISA BATACCHIJUNE 10th, 2017

INTERVIEW BY LEDA LUNGHI ON MUSECONTEMPORANEE

Lisa Batacchi extends her art research among traditions, rituality and slowness. In her narration time flows through events that come to us as remote echos telling of those populations between China and Mongolia, far from the frenetic concepts of globalization, where memories and customs are still relevant and history is trasmitted orally through songs and rituals such as embrodery. This is the world where the artist introduces us by exploring distant realities with a careful social and cultural analysis of those territories.

Yours is a work that has developed over time, to produce it you lived for a long period in different places between China and Mongolia, especially with the Miao tribe, a minority ethnicity, in a Province of Southwestern China. In this work, your purpose is to embrace and emphasize tradition criticizing our culture of globalization. Can you talk to me about it?

The research that I’m pursuing with my latest project, “The time of discretion”, was inspired by traditional textile techniques, and how some are no longer existing in Italy and in other countries. From here the desire to seek specific areas of the world where certain traditions are still alive in favor of an ecstatic form of temporary disappearance from today’s frenetic rhythms. Likewise, living and learning with “discretion” certain textile craft techniques with a community enables to discover some of their cultural, philosophical, religious, historical and social elements.The first chapter of “The time of discretion” began taking shape by traveling the first time in China, Inner Mongolia and Mongolia between July and September 2016, invited to create a work for the 4th edition of Land Art Mongolia Biennale by Valentina Gioia Levy. What moved me to go back for the second time from early March to early May 2017 in Qiandongnan County in Guizhou Province, a Chinese region so far away from our culture, habits and comfort, was to deepen my encounter with the Miao tribe, especially with an ethnic group called Hmong, and in particular with my friends, now as sisters, Lala, Napoon, Chun Yan. From them I have learned, despite the impossibility of communicating verbally, (rather with gestures, smiles, singing, desire and curiosity of an intercultural exchange), to practice the hot wax technique on fabric and the Indigo’s natural coloring. In the villages you can still breathe a humanity full of spirituality, sociality, cooperation between families, in work as in daily life, and a strong will to resist to the “chinesisation” that advances.In fact, most Hmong do not speak Chinese, but what struck me most is that they do not have their own written literature. They carry their traditions orally with songs or rather with rituals such as embroidery, shamanic practice, and an ancestral relationship with the Indigo plant growing on their mountains. True and respectable Hmongs can not fail to adopt certain customs as these are the only way to communicate with their ancestors who will be able to guarantee them, once they die, to return to their place of origin, the boreal polar star.Today Guizhou is an independent Prefecture of the Miao and Dong ethnicities, and is one of the poorest provinces in China still largely away from a rapid expanding glo-balization in almost all the rest of the country.To try not to disperse their millennial culture, I had the pleasure to meet and start collaborating with two Chinese NGOs dealing with projects to protect and disseminate Miao culture, one in Shanghai and the other in Guiyang, and I hope to develop some ideas with them soon.

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Elisir of return, photographic print on fine art baryta hahnemuehle 325gsm-100%cellulose bright white high gloss, wooden frame, glass, 53x40 cm, 2017-2018. Edition of 3

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Elisir of return, photographic print on fine art baryta hahnemuehle 325gsm-100%cellulose bright white high gloss, wooden frame, glass, 53x40 cm, 2017-2018. Edition of 3

Now that I have returned to Italy, I am continuing my wax designs on raw silk fabric but I still have a lot to say and do from here. I will soon begin to work on my first short movie, which will document the last 5 months of travel, and on an art book publication.

Can you talk about the importance of spirituality in your work?

There have been some key moments of my life in the past that have formed me and accompanied me to become the woman I am today developing a personal relationship with components in my work with a strong spiritual view. As brief flashes, memories of the 8-year intensive studies of disciplines such as Tai Ji Quan, Pa Kua, Qi Gong, and Chinese Traditional Medicine, slide in front of me; a trip to 2004 in a non-westernized yet Cambodia, authentic of wonderful smiles; to then hear a recall, like an epiphany, that led me to leave my work as a designer for Vivienne Westwood in London, to find myself a few years later graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence with a thesis on Taoism and contemporary art.I have quickly mentioned these four moments as I feel that this long-term project “The time of discretion” starts from my past and from many facets gathers together the energy and spirituality that are in me.All this brings me today to find the same timeless dimension that I have lived in the past, of love and listening to the flow of life. From the songs and rituals of the places that I have recently visited, guided by more intuitive insights, I have composed drawings which I enlarged and traced with the hot wax technique on rough silk fabrics, or realized sketches for site specific installation-performance in places such as Dariganga, south-east of the Gobi Desert, or thought of future places to explore.Coming across the Hmong tribe and the Mongolian people has finally led me to make many of my inner visions, passions and spiritual researches reality. Was it a fortune? More than I go on in my investigations more I understand that nothing here was just a fortuity.Last year for “Catching the axis. Between sky and earth” the 4th edition of Land Art Mongolia Biennale, I sought a precise shade of blue that could represent my abstract idea of an imaginary axis between sky and earth. I have been searching for a long time the possibility of finding a tribe in Mongolia that worked on natural Indigo color batik but I received rather informations from a friend that my idea could be realized rather in southern China with the Miao ethnic group, in particular with the Hmong people.I found out only later that the origin of the Hmong goes far back in time, perhaps up to the last Ice Age and that from oral traditions, legends and funeral rituals, their native lands are thought to be areas of high latitude such as Siberia, the north of Mongolia and the northern corners of the Chinese territory. The scholars theorize that the Hmong have arrived in today’s China about 3000 BC. before the Han Chinese ethnicity. Through the centuries, Han’s wars and persecutions led the Hmongs to reside, after various migratory flows, in Guizhou as well as in other Southeast Asian nations.I quickly mentioned this, because towards the end of my second trip, conversing with Xiao Mei Wang, journalist and founder of a Guiyang’s NGO, I closed a first important circle with an interesting turn of event!Although, even if the coexistence has never been peaceful between the two ethnic groups, the Hmong in the past millennia have absorbed the Taoist culture from the Chinese Han.And so, after Mao Zedong’s cultural revolution, China has completely lost its relationship with its ancient traditions and beliefs, and Taoist culture can today be sought again, lively as thousands of years ago, rather in distant regions as South China where all the Ethnicities not considered Han Chinese had migrated, as well as, less significantly, in Hong Kong and Taiwan since at Mao’s times they were British and Japanese colonies.These are some of the many coincidences found during the months I spent in Asia to build the first chapter of “The time of discretion” where, starting from my personal spiritual relationship with Taoism, I was able to deepen historical, social, philosophical and anthropological roots, widening prospects and thoughts between countries, political boundaries and ideologies.

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Eisir of return, a series of 4 photographic prints on fine art baryta hahnemuehle 325gsm-100%cellulose bright white high gloss, wooden frame, glass, 53x40 cm, 2017-2018. Edition of 3

Rituals have a preponderant position in your artwork, as well as elements with a very ancient cultural heritage like I-Ching. Can you explain their meanings, how they intervened in the work and where they brought you?

I am used to consult the oracle of I-Ching for my self as also for friends or acquaintances if they ask me to. The confrontation with this ancient Chinese text started in 2003 and since then it became an occasional precious habit which helps me to relate events and to project ideas of possible changes into my daily life.Before leaving a year ago for Inner Mongolia, China and Mongolia, having just a few clues to follow for my starting project “The Time of Discretion”, I asked the oracle advice.For the first time I could finally relate to ancient Chinese knowledge such as I-Ching to find out the future of our planet starting from the socio-political present condition of a big economic country such as the People’s Republic of China which is, on the other hand, loosing the bonds with its past and its identity!

The question to the Oracle was the following:

“Dear Oracle, will human beings, during this century, be able to decrease from this accelerating materialism freeing themselves from the chains of the capitalistic major vision of our time reconnecting with predestination of our life and of our planet?”

From the I-Ching’s response I saw some key elements that accompanied me and guided me on my journey, looking for coincidences with certain indications of this ancient Taoist text; and so I found myself assisting and practicing shamanic rituals, both of the Hmong and Mongolian populations, and I studied some local cults and ancient Tibe-tan Buddhist astrological representations in Inner Mongolia. As well I made an analysis of the many cultural changes that the Mongols, who are resident In Inner Mongolia, have had over the last 70 years of Chinese government over their nomadic culture. I then put together in a drawing the many connections found, which had correspon-dence with the response given me by the Chinese Oracle. From here I went on working to form the big stage-curtain used for the performance in Dariganga, South East of the Gobi Desert, for The Land Art Mongolia Biennial, 2016.

In my second recent trip, in March 2017, starting from the same question and response that I had had in 2016 from the Chinese Oracle, I created a work of 200 cm x 140 cm that represents in an abstract form the “dialogue” between me and I-Ching (Hexagram 40 and Hexagram 2) regards the future of our planet and the cosmic-cause-effect energies that gravitate around us. This last work has this way become a preface to the stage-curtain of the year before.

Do you want to talk to me about the big stage curtain that you produced with the Miao tribe, the meanings it contains, the allegories?

As I have already begun to explain in the previous question, before planning my itinerary, I consulted the I-Ching for guidance on my project “The time of discretion” and from the responses that I received I was guided by some suggestions derived from it.I interpreteted the I-Ching answer as a difficult moment for the world today where one can not hope for great changes. We will have to wait for a liberating rain that will bring forth new seeds on earth that will sprout in the future (Esagram 40); And yet the world of our century will be able to rise again with another aura if humanity succeeds in progressing in society with a new equilibrium. To do this it suggests human beings to seek out the spiritual creative energy of a “horse”, that represents the egoic male impetus, balanced with the female devotional character of a “cow” and her spacial energy that can nourish our planet.

My goal was to create a curtain of 490 cm x 320 cm with at the center my astral imagined animal drawing of a male horse with a cow breasts.

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Elisir of return, photographic print on fine art baryta hahnemuehle 325gsm-100%cellulose bright white high gloss, wooden frame, glass, 53x40 cm, 2017-2018. Edition of 3

In Asia, many political decisions were taken, making predictions about the future, by observing astrology. My cow-horse is therefore immersed between stars and constella-tions narrating, with its “spiritual” and “spatial” components, the course of our past, present and future history bringing a message of hope as well as of attention to danger.The stage-curtain, during the 4th edition of Land Art Mongolia Biennale, was mounted on a wooden structure and moved to specific areas of Dariganga, south-east of the Gobi Desert, particularly opening the scenery in front of the sacred mountain area of Altan Ovoo where one can pray to fulfill his/her own desires; and so during a procession the secret suggestions of the participants were released in the surrounding space.Only recently, on my second trip, I was surprised to be contacted by Xiao Mei Wng, a journalist and researcher, who invited me in residency for few days at her NGO. I have talked to her about my work and, with great emotion, I have got proof from her of my many intuitions on the bond that the Hmong have with animistic beliefs that I could find with the same intensity and symbolism in Mongolia.The reporter, finally made me discover an ancient Hmong textile representation called “the horse print” that is not figurative but abstract and leads to a strong bond not only with the Taoist philosophy but also with astrology significants. Infact the horse for the Hmong is the animal that reconnects the dead to their ancestors, as well as for the ancient Mongolian culture the mare is imagined as a heroine that runs to the limits of life and death on the boundary of the universe.

In Venice in the Garden of Palazzo Rossini at the Arts & Globalization Pavilion on 19 May you presented a performance curated by Valentina Gioia Levy entitled “The time of discretion. Vanishing acts # 05” which was followed by a talk. Do you want to talk to me about it?

The work behind this recent performance started from the desire to document ancient traditions, as well as to record forms of life and vitality in remote areas of the world that resist to a globalization that, while approaching, has not yet completely arrived.This has led me to search for sounds, songs, and rituals that I have collected during my travels between China and Mongolia.The idea of the performance is based on the use of simple Hmong and Mongolian elements (stool, basket, hat, yarn dyed with Indigo color, rice, milk, shamanic object) and five volunteers reinterpretating these rituals.The actions of the performers are divided into nine moments where sounds and silences, actions, pauses, gestures emerge and where specific movements are studied for each one. The music has been assembled in 5 tracks and each of these, repeated in loop, has become a beautiful mantra: the song of a fruit and vegetable vendor in a village, followed by a Hmong woman singing to a friend; a Hmong Shiaman in a village performing a ritual of healing; percussion sounds of a Mongolian Shaman in the Gobi Desert; a Hmong women singing while drawing with hot wax on fabric. All portraits of an authentic ancestral spirituality.

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Preface, schetches for the final work, pencil and water color on paper, installation variable, 2017

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Preface, wax on raw silk fabric, indigo batik,149 x 200 cm, 2017

LISA BATACCHI

Exhibition project for Le Murate. Progetti Arte Contemporanea Curated by Veronica Caciolli

June 7th-August 4th, 2018

It is therefore one of the necessary corrections that must be made to the character of humanity to greatly strengthen the contemplative element. Friedrich Nietzsche

The exhibition of Lisa Batacchi at Le Murate. Progetti per l’arte contemporanea in Florence is the artist’s first solo show in an institutional space and is meant as a retrospective cut of a period of three years, from 2016 to today.The exhibition consists of two works created together with the Hmong people in southern China and sixteen new works produced expres-sly for this occasion, including installations, tapestries, videos, photographs, documentary archives and symbolic finds.The Time of Discretion is an ongoing project, which trough innocence and intentionality, opens up complex and extremely sensitive issues, which greatly extend the boundaries of art.The exhibition crosses experience and imagination, dramatically confronting the East and the West, advancing a dense theoretical scenario in relation to the processes of globalization.The intention to share these issues that oscillate between utopia and awareness is to be understood as a “coming out” with respect to the adherence to those diversified “partisan” fringes that require a necessary rethinking of time, ethics and politics.In the context of the exhibition will therefore be called into question figures such as anthropologists, philosophers, historians of religions, sociologists, economists and members of ethnic minorities, who through their contributions will strengthen the theorem of art as a device for social change.

Veronica Caciolli

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Crossing destinies, series of 5 tapestries artigianally made by the artist, edition of 1. Each 62 x 60 cm, 2018natural indigo batik cotton thread dyed in Guizhou (CH) and weaved with the Takemura Jaquard at Fondazione Lisio Arte della seta in Florence (IT)

CROSSING DESTINIES

5 tapestries made artigianally by the artist using the Takemura antic weaving machine during a residency of one month at Fondazione Lisio Arte della seta in Florence (IT) as a co-production for the solo show The time of discretion. Chapter One at Le Murate curated by Veronica Caciolli.

This series is inspired by the Hmong belief that, when indigo solution sits on fabric, a brilliant blue froth builds on its surface. This is a sign that their ancestors are protecting them and will recognize them, once they die, to lead them back to their place of origin, the north of Mongolia and Siberia, from where they can then reunite to the center of all begining and ending, the Polar star.

These images are taken from macro details photographies catched when the fabric has a reaction to the indigo solution as something to look into as a magic sphere where future landscapes open up to us as undescribable flux of energies.

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Crossing destiniesinstallation view at Le Murate PAC, Firenze

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Crossing destiniesinstallation view at Le Murate PAC, Firenze

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Crossing destiniesartigianal Jaquard weaving, 62 x 60 cm, natural indigo batik cotton thread

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Crossing destiniesartigianal Jaquard weaving, 62 x 60 cm, natural indigo batik cotton thread

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Crossing destiniesartigianal Jaquard weaving, 62 x 60 cm, natural indigo batik cotton thread

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Crossing destiniesartigianal Jaquard weaving, 62 x 60 cm, natural indigo batik cotton thread

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Crossing destiniesartigianal Jaquard weaving, 62 x 60 cm, natural indigo batik cotton thread

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Toli, 201828 tin kitchen panels from Hong Kong (CH), total width cm 280 x 280

TOLIProduced with the support of PERCRO Perceptual Robotics Laboratory, Sant’ANNA, PISA, for the solo show at Le Murate curated by Veronica Caciolli

In South East Asia there is a belief that materials reflecting light can hunt away bad spirits.Usually the Hmong women wear tin-silver elements as ornaments, instead Mongolian sciamans rather use round reflecting amulets. In this case I decided to create a very big amulet starting from an Asian kitchen panel found in Hong Kong which, composed with additional 27 panels, becomes a common shield for people to protect themselves. This object will be used both as sculpture and as a device for performances in the private/public space.

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Toli, 201828 tin kitchen panels from Hong Kong (CH), total width cm 280 x 280

Antique Hmong “Horse pattern”, cotton fabric, indigo batik, cm 47 x 47, produced in late 1990’s, wooden frame, glass. artist’s private collection.

On my second trip, I was surprised to be contacted by Xiao Mei Wang, a journalist and researcher of the Hmong culture, who invited me in residence for one week at her NGO “Blu flower courtyard” in Guiyang, Guizhou province.I have talked to her about my work and, with great emotion I got proof from her of many intuitions that I had had regards the bond between the Hmong and certain animistic beliefs that I found with the same in-tensity and symbolism also in Mongolia. Xiao Mei made me discover an ancient Hmong textile representation called “the horse print” that is not figu-rative (as the new contemporary touristic patterns) but abstract and leads to a strong bond with the Taoist‘s philosophy, symbology, numerology and astrology. The pattern is very antic and traditional and it has a ritualistic use, so therefore it cannot be modified be-cause it would loose its powerfull effect. In the center of the upper square drawn in the pattern there is a small circle, which is, for Hmong belief, the place of origin, the north star, where their life begins and where they hope to return once they die. The an-cestors’s spirits live there so Hmong people hope to be protected by them by wearing this fabric pattern on their back, to be recognized by them and by sacrifying their spirit to them.Why a “horse print pattern”? It was made because the horse for the Hmong is an animal that reconnects the dead people to the north star, as well as for the ancient Mongolian culture the mare is imagined as a heroine that runs to the limits of life and death on the boundary of the universe.

This textile has been donated to me before leaving Guizhou region by Xiao Mei Wang in May 2017.

ELISIR OF RETURNThe fallowing photos document some scenes of a remote village in Guizhou region in south China where I spent time living with a indigo batik lady and her family. Other pictures instead shown the situation in a main Guizhou village where people are wearing beautiful traditional dresses and metallic ornaments. We expect them to be of the Hmong ethnicity, while instead they are Chinese tourists who have rented out Hmong clothes for few hours acting in their fantasy as a minority group. Why are the Hmong a minority grpup? The Hmong actually arrived in today’s China about 3000 BC. before the Han Chinese ethnicity but through the centuries, Han’s wars and persecutions against the Hmongs made this ethnicity reside, after various migratory flows, in Guizhou region as well as in other Southeast Asian nations.The Han on the otherside have despised them calling them the “Miao” which means barbars, since they don’t have a written language. The coexistence has never been peaceful between the two ethnic groups, but the Hmong in the past millennia have absorbed the Taoist culture from the Han.Today, decades after the Mao Zedong’s cultural revolution, China has completely lost its relationship with its ancient traditions and beliefs, and Taoist culture can be sought again, lively as thousands of years ago, rather in distant regions, as South China, where all the Ethnicities not considered Han have migrated. This more and more affluent Chinese tourism in the Guizhou region can on the other side destroy the purity of this ancestral culture making it become just another post globalization attraction but could it be also a need to reconnect with their lost origins?

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Elisir of return, photographic series printed on fine art baryta hahnemuehle 325gsm-100%cellulose, bright white high glosswooden frame, glass, 53x40 cm, 2017-2018

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Elisir of return, photographic print on fine art baryta hahnemuehle 325gsm-100%cellulose bright white high glosswooden frame, glass, 53x40 cm, 2017-2018

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Elisir of return, photographic print on fine art baryta hahnemuehle 325gsm-100%cellulose bright white high gloss, wooden frame, glass, 53x40 cm, 2017-2018

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Elisir of return, photographic series printed on fine art baryta hahnemuehle, 325gsm-100%cellulose, bright white high glosswooden frame, glass, 53x40 cm, 2017-2018

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Elisir of return, photographic series printed on fine art baryta hahnemuehle, 325gsm-100%cellulose, bright white high glosswooden frame, glass, 53x40 cm, 2017-2018

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Gobi performance, photographic series printed on fine art baryta hahnemuehle, 325gsm-100%cellulose, bright white high glosswooden frame, glass, 100x70 cm, 2016-2018

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Gobi performance, photographic series printed on fine art baryta hahnemuehle, 325gsm-100%cellulose, bright white high glosswooden frame, glass, 100x70 cm, 2016-2018

THE TIME OF DISCRETION.Archive of a journey, 2017-2018 (Above) photographic print on cotton paper, drawing, antic travel book(Below) photos printed on cotton paper, writings and drawings, I-ching neckless

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Blue shading studies, watercolor and pencil on rice paper, 2016

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. Archive of a journey, Mongolian toli, hand made weaving mounted on wooden frame, 60x30 cm, 2017-2018

THE TIME OF DISCRETION

DIRECTOR Lisa Mara BatacchiItaly | 27 mins | 2018English with Italian subtitlesMusics by: Stefano Maurizi, Sajncho Namčylak, Mirco Mariottini Edited by: Barbara De Mori Re-recording mixer: Michele GualdriniColorist: Nazzareno NeriProduction: Lisa BatacchiPost-production: Laser FilmSupported by: Banca Euromobiliare

Political, social and economical changes of the 21st century call forth new responses and Lisa Mara Batacchi’s hybrid documen-tary arises from the necessity of a visual artist to recover ancient textile rituals and a timeless dimension of conviviality which are gradually but inexorably disappearing. The story starts from an invitation to participate to an Art Bien-nial in the South East of the Gobi desert entitled “Catching the Axis. In between the Sky and the Earth”. In search of a precise natural shade of blue, the journey starts in Inner Mongolia then leading to South West China. Here, while preparing her art pie-ce, she will enstablish relations of cooperation with the Hmong ethnic minority ladies learning the ancient sacred art of dyeing with indigo. Guided by the book of changes (I-Ching) consulted before departure, in this short film Batacchi uses an experimen-tal approach mixing travel moments, visions and thoughts to-gether with music components, to give voice to invisible comu-nications between individuals and the sorrounding space and by exploring at the same time an ecstatic form of temporary disappearance from the globalized culture of our millenium.

THE TIME OF DISCRETION. (paper installation)For 2019 I was thinking of closing the first chaper of this project with an nviromental installation which will be inspired by Hmong cut out papers (symbolizing birds and flowers) which are traditionally used as protecting symbols against bad spirits, when embroidered on baby nap back packs and covered with thre-ad. These papers will be reused instead together with the watercolor technique to evoke an old Chinese Taoist saying The empire crumbles. Mountains and rivers rimain as a message of hope and protection for the new generations of our century.

Lisa Mara Batacchi Via di Boldrone 1, 50141, Firenze (IT) info@lisabatacchi.com / cel. 392 4144836

Education

2011BFA in visual arts - with honors, Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, IT2004BA - in Fashion Design, Polimoda, Florence, IT

Workshops

2012Words... Action, with Christian Raimo, curated by 98weeks (Beirut), Artissima19, Museo della Re-sistenza,Turin, IT 2010XIV Biennale Internazionale di Scultura di Carrara, with Grzegorz Kowalski, curated by Fabio Ca-vallucci, Istituto del marmo Pietro Tacca, ITThe materials of thought, the materials of the work of art with Liliana Moro, Summer Academy, Salzburg, A2007Out Side project On Invisibility, with Tanja Ostojic, different locations, Belgrade, SRB

Grants

2014MOVIN’UP II session 2014 promoted by Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities andTourism, General Directorate for Contemporary Art and Architecture and Urban Suburbs General Directorate for Performing Arts and GAI – Association for the Circuit of the Young Italian Artists2010Salzburg International Academy of Fine Arts award to partecipate to a workshop held by Liliana Moro.

Residencies

2017ACAF Foundation, Shanghai, CN 2016Work In Progress residency, TAC museum (Textile Art Center), New York, US2015Clark House Initiative, Bombay, INDHow we want to live? A project by Lu Cafausu together with Ayreen Anastas, Rene Gabri, Adrian Paci, Luigi Coppola, FreeHome University, IT2013Incontri ad Eèa, curated by Alberto Di Fabio, Federica Forti, Ponza Island, IT

Solo exhibitions, performances, up coming*

2019*The time of discretion. Chapter One, solo show at Label 201 and performance at MACRO Muse-um, curated by Valentina Gioia Levy, Rome, IT2018The time of discretion, curated by Veronica Caciolli, Le Murate PAC | Progetti Arte Contemporanea, Florence, IT2017The time of discretion. Act #05. curated by Valentina Gioia Levy for Remembering the future di-rected by Rikke Jørgensen, Art & Globalization Pavillion during the 57th Venice Biennale, Palazzo Rossini, Venice, IT2016Soulmates (within time)#05, TAC (Textile Art Center), New York, US2015Soulmates (within time)#03, curated by Sumesh Sharma, Clark House Initiative, Bombay, IND2014Soulmates (within time)#01, curated by Ermanno Cristini, riss(e), Zentrum, Varese, ITReduction from river to stream, public art installation, curated by Forward, Florence, ITVictoria secret, promoted by Nessiah festival, curated by Federica Forti, Pisa, IT2013A day will come in which we will all be poets, curated by Spela Zidar, Lato gallery, Prato, IT2010Linger On, curated by Giovanni Surace, CAD (center art & design), Florence, IT2009Traces of Sleep, galleria Alessandro Bagnai, curated by Gianni Pozzi, Florence, IT

Group shows

2018Something Else, Cairo Off Biennale directed by Simon Njami, invited by curator Valentina Gioia Levy, Cairo, ETArt & Connectography. Remapping Global World through Art, Manifesta12 collateral event, curated by art & Globalization, Palermo, IT2016Animism, Dust space, Milan, ITCatching the Axis – in between the sky and the earth, Land Art Mongolia Biennale, curated by Valentina Gioia Levy, Italian Embassy, UMA gallery, Ulam Bator, MN2015Sviluppo di un poliedro irregolare nello spazio, curated by Imagonirmia, Treviso, ITOltre città, curated by Giacomo Bazzani, Villa La Magia, Quarrata, ITZOON, curated by Luca Scarabelli and Samuele Menin, Castello Visconteo, Abbiate Grasso, ITVitamine. Tavolette energetiche, curated by Monaldi Laura, Museo Novecento, Florence, ITNuovi animali sociali, curated by Valentina Goia Levy, Villa Ada, Rome, IT2014Disseminazioni, curated by Gino Giannuizzi, Casabianca, Bologna, ITThe Wall (archives) #10, a project by Pietro Gaglianò, Assab One, Milan, IT

Terranauti, curated by Ilaria Mariotti, Angelika Stepken, Villa Romana, Villa Pacchiani, Pisa, ITRe-birth day. Io vedo, Io guardo, curated by Annalisa Cattani, Novella Guerra, Imola, ITThe Wall (archives) #9, a project by Pietro Gaglianò, Casa Sponge/Palazzo Giannini, Pergola, ITThe Celebration of the Living (who reflect upon death) 5th edition, a collab art project by Lu Cafau-su, San Cesario di Lecce, ITIncontri ad Eèa, curated by Maria Ida Gaeta, Casa delle Lettarature, Rome, ITMotivi di famiglia, curated by Paolo Toffolutti, SPAC, Villa di Toppo Florio, Udine, ITDimenticare quel corso artificiale di pensieri, Casabianca, Bologna, IT2013Finte nature, curated by Giacomo Bazzani, Mac,n museum, Monsummano Terme, Pistoia, ITThe Wall (archives) #8, a project by Pietro Gaglianò, B.goLoretoSP/CRAC, Cremona, ITAcqua, curated by Carles Marco, Vivai Cioncolini/Balestri/Trenti, Montevarchi, ITLove, video selection, curated by Stefano W. Pasquini, Melepere gallery, Verona, IT2012Ephemera. Documenti, Ornamenti e Pizzini, curated by Luca Scarabelli, Riss(e), Varese, IT Quasi una lotteria, curated by a certain number of books.+Riss(e), VIR Viafarini-in-residence, Milan, IT2010B/label, curated by Irene Balzani, Irene Innocente, Private Flat # Brucia babilonia, Florence, ITThe materials of thought the materials of a work of art, curated by Liliana Moro, Hohen Salzburg Fortess, A2009Sul disegnare, curated by Lorenzo Bruni, ViaNuova arte contemporanea, Florence, ITHallucinatory Sleep Paralysis, curated by Francesco Funghi,Sara Vannacci, studio MDT, Prato, ITStart Point, Istituto degli Innocenti, Florence, IT 2008Genius Loci, curated by Federica Forti, Forte Umberto I, Palmaria Island, IT2007Out Side Project On Invisibility, curated by Dejan Atanackovic, Ex Turkish Bath, Belgrade, SRB

Talks/Lectures

2017Practicing Slowness and Disappearance from Capitalistic Ideology - Contemporary Art Practices, Textiles and Embroideries in Anthropological Contexts. Visual Artists: Lisa Batacchi, Anna Mapou-bi in conversation with curator Valentina Gioia Levy, Arts & Globalization Pavillion, directed by during the Venice Biennale, Palazzo Rossini, Venece, IT2015Talk - Roma incontra il mondo, Lisa Batacchi, Elena Bellantoni e Mariana Ferratto in conversation with Giorgio De Finis (Director of MAAM museo dell’altro e dell’altrove) and Elena Giulia Rossi (Di-rector of Artshake), curated by Valentina Gioia Levy, Villa Ada, Rome, IT2014Symposium - Terranauti #Prolog: Navigating in the art system. Dialogues with international cura-tors, galleries and the director of a public museum, curated by Ilaria Mariotti & Angelika Stepken. Villa Romana, Florence, IT2013Talking about SLT art initiatives invited by Prof. Cecilia Guida, Accademia di Belle Arti, Florence, IT

Teaching/Personal workshops

2017The time of discretion, ARTS CAN DO educational project, invited by ACAF Foundation, Shanghai2014Victoria’s recipes, invited by Wafa Hourani as part of ORIENTamenti: Reshaping Past Traditions,promototed by Siena Art Institute, IT

Curatorial / Art Initiatives www.sltartinitiatives.tumblr.com

2014Meglio mangiare poco tutti i giorni che tanto una volta al mese, collective performance, Di tutto di più, Montelupo Fiorentino, IT2013A first step towards coincidences & meetings Part V, group show, b-a-d contemporary, Pietrasanta, ITA first step towards coincidences & meetings Part IV. Oh books., Giancarlo Norese, Oh Petroleum, Pietro Gaglianò, SomethingLikeThis, Florence, IT2012A first step towards coincidences & meetings Part III. Pierfabrizio Paradiso, SomethingLikeThis, Florence, ITA first step towards coincidences & meetings Part I, group show, SomethingLikeThis, Florence, IT2011Coordination of Attimi Fondamentali, Superstudio, R. Benassi, curated by Alberto Salvadori, Museo Marino Marini, Florence, IT

Art Fairs

2015SantacaterinaVSArtVerona=Performing, curated by Viaindustriae/Società dello Spettacolo, Inde-pendents, Art Verona, IT2012A first step towards coincidences & meetings Part II, promoted by SomethingLikeThis, Indepen-dents, curated by Cristiano Seganfreddo, Art Verona, IT

Fashion design

2007-2008personal knitwear collection distribuited by Raccolta differenziata, Trento and Piedi nudi nel parco, Florence, IT2005-2006fallowing prototyping (Chloè, Ter et Bantine, Vievienne Westwood, Wolford) for Studio Cataldi, IT 2004researcher and assistant designer for Anglomania, Vivienne Westwood Ltd, London, UK2003assistent designer for Santacroce (Prada group), IT2002assistent designer for Appartamento °50, IT

Pubblications

2019* Lisa Batacchi, The time of discretion, Silvana editoriale2016Bonomi, G., Il corpo solitario. L’autoscatto nella fotografia contemporanea, Rubettino editore 2014Besides, it’s always the others who die, produced by Kunsthalle Marcel Duchamp 2010Case d’arte-guida ai luoghi della creatività, viol’Art edizioni, Florence2008DVD Fiori e Cioccolata, Com.Records

Catalogues

2016Catching the axis, in between the sky and the earth, Land art Mongolia Biennale2015Bazzani, G., Come se lo facessimo noi, Pacini editore, Pisa, ITMonaldi, L., Vitamine. Tavolette energetiche, Polistampa, Florence, IT2014Di Fabio, A. (ed. by), Incontri ad Eèa, Ponza, IT2013Marco, C., Acqua arte contemporanea, Aska, Florence, ITBazzani, G., Finte naure. Una nuova scena artistica toscana, Pacini editore, Pisa, ITCosma, C., (ed. by), La semantica delle pere, Sensus luoghi per l’arte contemporanea, Florence, IT2012Art Verona, Veronafiere, IT2008Forti, F., Genius Loci - mostra d’arte ambientale itinerante, Athena Edizioni

Paper articles

2018Gaia Rau, Tra Oriente e Occidente il tempo di Lisa Batacchi, XVIII, La Repubblica, June 7th2015Reema Gehi, Stitch on the move, Mumbai Mirror, page 12, Bombay, June 14th2014La coindizione di un azzardo, text by Ermanno Cristini, Giulia Brivio, boite #12 Festival Nessiah. Protagonista la cucina ebraica, Il Tirreno, December 5thMontelupo. Artisti al mercatino, Il Tirreno, April 28thMontelupo F.no, Una mostra di arte all’interno del mercato dell’usato, La Nazione (Empoli), April 27th2012Non c’era, adesso c’è. Something like this. Artribune Magazine, Simone Rebora, Anno II, n° 10, Nov.-Dic.2009Primo piano Firenze, Start Point, La Nazione, page 4-5, May 19th2008Non solo mare, Genius Loci, La Nazione, page 21, August 14th

Bartarelli, V., Un dialogo fitto e incessante fatto di segni... Exibart.on paper, page 53, n° 52, Oct. Montevedi, A., Genius Loci sull’Isola di Palmaria, My Media, pag 50-53, July/Sept.

Web Articles

2018Rau. G., Il mondo alle Murate ai confini della realtà2017Lunghi. L., LISA BATACCHI_INTERVIEW on MUSEARTECONTEMPORANEA2016LAM 360° – land art Mongolia. La quarta edizione della Biennale in Mongolia. Intervista a Valentina Gioia Levy di Luisa Galdo, LuxFlux, RIVISTA N° 60/2016Biennale Land Art Mongolia.Il racconto di Lisa Batacchi, artribune 2015D’Acquisto Germano, Roma incontra il mondo 2015 a Villa Ada, Marieclare Marsala, H., Italiani in trasferta. Lisa Batacchi a Bombay con Movin’Up, artribuneReema Gehi, Stitch on the Move, pag. 12, Jun 14th, Mumbai mirror Lapo Binazzi (UFO) & Lisa Batacchi, COLTIVARE L’ECCEZIONE E NON LA REGOLA, for Voglia di ‘68 a rubric on UnDonet curated by Ermanno Cristini2014DA RISSE A ZENTRUM. TRE MOSTRE, ATP DIARYFestival Nessiah. Protagonista la cucina ebraica, Il Tirreno, December 5thGiuseppe F. Pagano, Il gusto per l’incontro. L’artista Lisa Batacchi al festival Nessiah, radioecoGaia Rau, UN LAVATOIO COME PONTE SULL’ARNO: L’INSTALLAZIONE DI LISA BATACCHI, La Repubblica, Set.11 thMarsala, H., LISA BATACCHI DA PALMARIA A PONZA, artribune, March 23rdLorenzon, L., Incontri ad EèA. LA RESIDENZA DI LISA BATACCHI, B Come blog, July 23 Encounters in Eèa, Flash art international on line #311, July-SeptemberMarsala, H., Artisti in vacanza, sull’isola di Ponza, Artribune, July 14th2013Innocenti, M., Cinque artisti e mille corrispondenze, Matteo Innocenti, Artribune, May 27 thRebora, S., E il crowdfunding approda anche a teatro, Artribune, May 4thRebora, S., LISA BATACCHI E IL CERCHIO PERFETTO, Artribune, JanuaryLa semantica delle pere, UnDo.Net2012Rebora, S., Dopo il salotto artistico ad Art Verona... SLT arriva al terzo step: di scena Pierfabrizio Paradiso, Artribune, November 23rd Rebora, S., Non c’era, adesso c’è. SomethingLikeThis. Artribune Magazine, Anno II, n°10, Nov.-Dec.Rebora, S., Artisti senza galleria né curatori, Artribune, September 28th2010Sul disegnare, Toscana OggiSul disegnare, exhibart2009Hallucinatory sleep paralysis, UnDo.Net2008Bartarelli. V., Genius Loci, September 5t