Rossella Biscotti, The Prison of Santo Stefano, 2011
2 sculptures (lead sheet), Dimensions variable
2 videos (10'16'' and 3'30'', b/w and color, no sound),
1 metal benche, printer matter, 1 agave plant
Installation view at WIELS, Brussels, 2014
Rossella Biscotti, The Prison of Santo Stefano (detail), 2011
Rossella Biscotti, The Prison of Santo Stefano (detail), 2011
Rossella Biscotti, The Prison of Santo Stefano (detail), 2011
Rossella Biscotti, The Prison of Santo Stefano (detail), 2011
Rossella Biscotti, The Prison of Santo Stefano (detail), 2011
Rossella Biscotti, I dreamt that you changed into a cat… gatto… ha ha ha, 2013
Sculptures in compost, Dimension variable, Sound installation, 60’, subtitled in English, 18 sketches
12 framed drawings, 34 x 34 cm (each) by Roberta Baseggio, Female Prison of Giudecca Venice
Installation view at WIELS, Brussels,2014
Rossella Biscotti, I dreamt that you changed into a cat… gatto… ha ha ha, 2013
Installation view at WIELS, Brussels,2014
Rossella Biscotti, I dreamt that you changed into a cat… gatto… ha ha ha (detail), 2013
Rossella Biscotti, I dreamt that you changed into a cat… gatto… ha ha ha (detail), 2013
Rossella Biscotti, I dreamt that you changed into a cat… gatto… ha ha ha (detail), 2013
Rossella Biscotti, I dreamt that you changed into a cat… gatto… ha ha ha (detail), 2013
Rossella Biscotti, I dreamt that you changed into a cat… gatto… ha ha ha (detail), 2013
Rossella Biscotti, Yellow Movie, 2010
16mm film, optical sound, 22’, subtitles in English
Installation view at WIELS, Brussels, 2014
Rossella Biscotti, Yellow Movie (still), 2010
Rossella Biscotti, 168 Sections of a Human Brain, 2010 - 2014
108 gelatin silver prints on baryta paper, 30 x 40 cm (each), 7 steel tables
Installation view at WIELS, Brussels, 2014
Rossella Biscotti, 168 Sections of a Human Brain (detail), 2010 - 2014
Rossella Biscotti, 168 Sections of a Human Brain (detail), 2010 - 2014
Rossella Biscotti, 168 Sections of a Human Brain (detail), 2010 - 2014
Rossella Biscotti, 168 Sections of a Human Brain (detail), 2010 - 2014
Informed by research and collaborations, Rossella Biscotti’s method consists of interweaving narratives in relation to the concrete and discrete architecture of memory, dreams and ideas. The exhibition revisits sites of punishment such as the women’s prison on Giudecca in Venice, the cells designed for life imprisonment on the Santo Stefano Island, or the courtroom where radical leftists were tried in the 1980s in Rome.
From this gathering of works emerges the ability of the human mind to resist oppression, such as in the re-enactment of the trial where engaged personalities from Brussels translate selections from the trial recordings. Besides language, scientific techniques are used to explore the imaginary: whether it be through photographic prints of anatomical cross-sections or the recorded dreamscapes of inmates, Biscotti poignantly sketches out the inner workings of a human brain.
