Guendalina Cerruti

A white paper silhouette stands out against a wooden frame, sealed by a metal mesh decorated with beads and painted tin butterflies. This is the shaped cut-out of Guendalina Cerruti's body, who created the work Farfalle di latta e sagoma di carta (Tin Butterflies and Paper Silhouette), where the gesture of self-detection is inspired by shop window mannequins. 'In recent years,“ says the artist, who has recently returned to Italy after a long period in London, 'I have observed shop window mannequins, simulacra of an idealised identity: fixed, shiny, anonymous bodies that inhabit the city like silent presences”. In opposition to these artificial figures, the artist stages the silhouette of her own physicality as a place of belonging, memory and vulnerability. In fact, Cerruti points out, ‘the work ideally dialogues with Ana Mendieta's iconic Silueta series’ (Havana, 1948 – New York, 1985), who in the 1970s used the body as a medium, as a sign of authentic rootedness in the environment and a ritual of presence. Furthermore, the concept of personal creativity is emphasised by the imaginative decorations applied to the brass grille, which instead refers to social conventions and the mass conformism of current trends.

Arianna Baldoni