Martina Stella
born 1992 in Trieste, Italy
Contact: ems.stella@gmail.com

La pratique artistique de Martina Stella allie l’écriture asémique à des techniques de reproduction numérique et de projection vidéo, afin d’explorer le potentiel de la rencontre d’une écriture, généralement tracée à la main; avec les nouvelles technologies, qui la transforment en code numérique. Cette recherche se développe dans plusieurs directions, d’une part en abordant la notion de paysage asémique, les origines et les modes de spatialisation du texte par la projection de graphèmes dans l’espace d’exposition. Non plus sur papier, mais au mur, les idéogrammes illisibles de Stella s’étendent horizontalement ou verticalement; oscillant entre bidimensionnalité et tridimensionnalité, ils enveloppent le visiteur d’un bruit. Les tirages numériques Digital Asemic (2018) montrent une partition visuelle, dont les signes, directement inspirés d’objets et d’actions, sont condensés en petits symboles dessinés par de fines lignes. Dans la calligraphie chinoise, le geste, au-delà
de définir un objet, révèle un état d’esprit. Imprégnée de cet art, l’écriture de Stella révèle une relation particulière et complexe avec la perception du réel.
Martina Stella’s artistic practice combines asemic writing with digital reproduction and video projection techniques, in order to explore the potential of the re-creation of a writing, usually drawn by hand, with new technologies, which transform it into digital code. This research is developing in several directions, on the one hand by addressing the notion of asemic landscape, the origins and modes of spatialization of the text through the projection of graphemes in the exhibition space. No longer on paper, but on the wall, Stella’s illegible ideograms extend horizontally or vertically; oscillating between two and three dimensionality, they envelop the visitor with a noise. The Digital Asemic (2018) digital prints show a visual score, whose signs, directly inspired by objects and actions, are condensed into small symbols drawn by thin lines. In Chinese calligraphy, the gesture, beyond defining an object, reveals a state of mind. Impregnated with this art, Stella’s writing reveals a particular and complex relationship with the perception of reality.
Sara de Chiara and Pauline Mack, Catalogue de l’exposition, Ecrire en dessinant, quand la
langue cherche son autre au CAC de Genève, publié aux Editions Skira, 2020.
Martina Stella, born in Trieste (Italy) in 1992, lives and works in Paris.
Graduated in Photography and contemporary art at Paris 8 University, she is currently working as an audio- visual artist and technician. She is specialized in video projection techniques: Video mapping as a symbolic form has been the subject of her master’s researches, in which esthetic theory comes with solid technical knowledge and practical artistic research.
In her work, drawing is the first step of the image conception and evolution in space. Martina practice is founded on a back-and-forth movement, where in-betweenness state and interdependence relationships play a fundamental role. Her attention is drawn towards what takes places between the drawing and the support, between the image and the environment. She reflects on the untold and the unspeakable, stating an impossibility which is also claimed. In her practice of asemic writing, abstract calligraphy, signs are un- readable yet charged of meaning: between writing and drawing, the limits of the image relate to the limits of language. The written sign is the fundamental unit, the actual medium to question our relation to time and space.
Education
2019 Master Degree in Photography and Contemporary Art, Université Paris 8
2017 Bachelor’s Degree in Photography and Contemporary Art, Université Paris 8
2015 Bachelor’s Degree in Languages and foreign literatures, Università degli Studi di Trieste
Exhibitions and Performances
2020
Solo Show, Art Verona, Supported by Nicola Mazzeo from Galleria Rizomi, 11/13.12.2020
Wopart International Drawing on paper fair, with Rizomi Arte Gallery, 27.11.2020
(current) L’Orizzonte negativo: 1st price winner in See the sea change international call
Robotics, Arte e robotica, Gruppo 78 in collaboration with OGS, Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e Geofisica Sperimentale at Museo d’Arte Moderna Ugo Carrà, Muggia (TS), 2020 Link to the project website
(postponed) Matter of Time International Art Exhibition Project, 09.04 to 11.04.2020 in Ennejma Ezzahra in Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia Link to the project website
Collective exhibition – Scrivere Disegnando, 29.01 to 23.08.2020 in
Centre d’Art Contemporain de Genève, Switzerland, Link to the CAC Genève website
2019
Collective exhibition Scritture Asemiche, Libri d’artista dalla collezione dell’Accademia delle Belle Arti di Palermo, 02.12.2019 to 15.01.2020, Palermo, Sicily, Link to the website
Media Art Festival Friesland, Young Master’s selection, 22.11.2019 to 08.12.2019 à Leeuwarden, NL Link to the Festival’s website
SeeDjerba, Media Art Biennal, 19.08 au 29.08 Young Masters Residence program 29.08 au 03.09.2019 Festival, Houmt Souk, Djerba with the support of iPortunus Creative Europe – Link to the Festival’s website
Dal Dorso Mondo, Performance video mapping live, 06.06.2019, Amphithéâtre X de l’Université Paris 8 Vincennes Saint Denis. Avec: Gabriele Stera (voix et musique), Jérémy Zaouati (guitare électrique), Franziska Baur (violon), Martina Stella (projections mapping vidéo live).
2018
Dorso Mondo, Performance video mapping live, 15.12.2018, Trieste Contemporanea, Trieste, Avec: Gabriele Stera (voix et musique)
Exposition CONCRETA – Festapoesia, 19.04 to 05.05.2018 Accademia d’Ungheria, Roma
2017
Exposition collective Déambulation urbaine, 06.06.2017, Centre Altissimo de Metz
Exposition personnelle Horizons. 05.2017, Galerie la Confrérire, 15 rue Paul Albert, 75018, Paris. 2016
Exposition individuelle Framents. 02 and 03.2016, Verre Taquin, 22 rue Juliette Dodu, 75010
2015
Exposition collective Inventaire, 04.07 to 29.08.2015 Galerie Mémoire de l’Avenir, 45/47 rue Ramponeau, 75020, Paris
Publications
Article – Published on Utsanga magazine: Parole al vento Link to the article
Article: Asemic writing: a short anthology. Link to the article
Article: Le mapping vidéo: une nouvelle forme symbolique? En cours de publication. ISTE Editions, mai 2019. Article présenté dans le cadre de la conférénce What is video mapping?, au séminaire Image Beyond the Screen International Conference, Vidéo Mapping Festival, Arenberg, 28.03.2019 Link to ISTE Edition
Illustrations: Dorso Mondo, Livre avec CD, Editions Squilibri, Rome, février 2019. Textes de Gabriele Stera; Musique de Franziska Baur, Gabriele Stera, Jérémy Zaouati; Illustrations de Martina Stella
Conferences and Workshops
05.04.2020 (postponed) WWWP Workshop, Women working with projection workshop – project developed with curator Bettina Pelz, Image Beyond the Screen International Conference, European Vidéo Mapping Center, Lille
14/15.10.2019 I-Portunus Policy Recommendations Workshop, Supporting Cultural Mobility, Brussels
28.03.2019 What is video mapping?, Image Beyond the Screen International Conference, Vidéo Mapping Festival, Arenberg
Contact
ems.stella@gmail.com