BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Born in Ravenna in 1966, Marcella Belletti graduated from the Liceo Artistico and the Accademia di Belle Arti in Ravenna in 1989 with Prof. U. Folli. He studied painting under the expert guidance of Master S. Cicognani. In 2010 she won the painting prize “Paolo Fava” at Galleria II Coccio in Ravenna and exhibited at the Art Studio EM gallery in Ravenna. He participated in ceramic workshops at the Carlo Zauli Museum with the ceramist Aida Bertozzi, in 2018 with the artist Silvia Celeste Calcagno and in 2019 with Giorgio di Palma. From the beginning of his career he studied the expressive skills of the texture and fabric, experimenting with the different possibilities that non-traditional materials can reveal. Concentrates his artistic activity in Ravenna.

Your work “Trama 13” has recently won over the public and the jury as part of the International Contemporary Art Award Comel 2014. A curtain made with aluminum wires and embellished with small jewels of clay. A work of absolute elegance and probably of difficult workmanship. What did this preparation and participation in an international competition like the Comel Prize represent for you?

Before becoming aware of the Comel Award I had never used aluminum for my work, the possibility of developing a personal research led me to the realization of the work on display. It has been a strong stimulus to experiment with a new material, discovering its ductility by retaining an article with constancy and a lot of patience, undoing a work and then recreating a new one, more precious by removing it from the context for which it was made.

You love experimenting with different materials and challenging their expressive possibilities, as you did for aluminum in “Trama 13”. Can you tell us about any of these challenges?

My work is basically expressed through painting, I experimented with sculpture through ceramics, using a thin slab of clay, I imprinted the texture of a fabric, thus obtaining a very delicate elaborate. The difficulty was to make the object light; only when cooking was finished I could see if the work reflected expectations. It didn’t break, it was a challenge for me.

You exhibit mainly in your city, Ravenna. How much does it count for your artistic production to live in such an artistically rich city, also regarding the meeting with other passing artists?

Until now I have exhibited exclusively in Ravenna. Living in a city that, since ancient times, uses mosaic as an artistic form, is always an incentive; see artists who use this material in contexts other than the original one. The meeting with other artists, is an opportunity for mutual exchange that leaves an open window to develop new ideas.

Are you busy preparing some exhibitions at the moment?

I am preparing some works for a collective that will be held in October in the ancient salt stores in Cervia (RA) whose theme is “The food I would like”. Also in October I will participate in the “Paolo Fava” award at the art gallery “Il coccio” in Ravenna. Following, in December, a group exhibition at a women’s art gallery in Turin.

Trama 13 (detail), 2013

Beyond the experiments, which are always an indispensable stimulus for growth, there is a material that you prefer and on which you like to return, why?

Drawing and painting are definitely my first means of expression. My pleasure begins to live with the preparation of the support that will accommodate the drawing/ painting, regardless of the material with which it will be made.

What are the messages you want to convey to the public through art? Or do you think it is possible to create regardless of the audience?

Every work is an expression of research, aimed at reaffirming a new vital impulse in the object destined to the shadow, the dust, the cancellation of the sense of existence. My experimentation constantly poses insignificant objects, forgotten, consumed by time, wear and indifference as the warp of a new fabric I have woven.
I believe it is essential to create independently of the public, but it is also essential to present ourselves to the public for a confrontation that puts creation in a discourse in the making.

In which city of Italy or of the world would you like to create an important work and exhibit?

Every city is particular, the Comel award was an opportunity to get out of Ravenna with my work, a very strong stimulus to try, more than anything else to myself, that I can do it. An extremely positive experience, which I would like to repeat by letting myself be taken to any city.

Trama 13 (detail), 2013