A Room with a View: Giorgia Severi on her isolation experience

"A Room with a View" is a new editorial initiative born with the aim of helping us see the positive potential of a little time spent in self-isolation. The series starts with a contribute by Italian artist Giorgia Severi.

Words by Giorgia Severi

Dear My Art Guides Readers,

I am an Italian mixed media artist, working with sculpture, painting, drawings, installations, video, sound recordings and performances, based on landscapes which disappear or are being quickly modified due to anthropic action or geological causes. My artistic research focuses mostly on glaciers, forests, plants in extinction, borderline zones, as well as cultural landscapes.

I am based in Italy, near Cervia, where I live and work. As you can see I am talking to you from outdoors, which is a pretty special privilege during these Covid-19 days we are all living through. We are very lucky here because we have a farm and we are always working outside.

How am I living in the Coronavirus days? Well, not much has changed for us here because we are very self-sufficient, thanks to the organic food we produce! This has demonstrated that the decision we made a few years ago was the right one. Living between art and nature keeps us healthy and strong, plus we don’t depend on the system so much. It is a shame I can’t go to the studio in Cesena but I have set up an studio-office here at the farmhouse.

It is in times like these that I must give thanks to my up-bringing, which taught me about the relationship that humans should have with the environment. Reading about botany, geology, art history, philosophy and especially from the artists who have been my mentors. Their way of living helped me shape my artistic stand point, living and working with the landscape as my starting point.

Giorgia Severi's Farm, Courtesy of the artist

I want to draw attention to Joseph Beuys because his art has taught me many lessons, not just about art itself but how nature is related to art in our everyday life. Also, how to use it to create and shape a different kind of society, by starting from within ourselves. He connected both art and agriculture in a new vision of performing with people interacting inside society. His “KUNST IST KAPITAL” was one of the most accurate statements ever made in art. Culture is a wealth which is acquired by being free.

The books I would suggest for this period of quarantine are: Joseph Beuys “The Defense of Nature” and Joseph Beuys “Grassello”, two books which focus on his art, philosophy, concept and life story, and some of his major artworks.

Thats it for now and please remember not to separate yourself from the environment, we depend on it and we are nature! The word “Nature” in it’s true latin meaning translates as “creative force” or “generation force”, so art is a creative generating force and agriculture is nature as everything comes from it. If you have your own culture and you are able to produce your own food, you gain freedom and the system has less control.

We feel we are very lucky for what we have here and are thoughts are with those living in the city in a small flat, where their only source of fresh air is from an open window.

Thank you, take care

Giorgia Severi
#iorestoacasa
#stayhome

Italian speaking readers can also enjoy the video contribute Giorgia shared with us at this link.