Silvia Mariotti: The Dawn On A Dark Sublime

The Dawn On A Dark Sublime project by artist Silvia Mariotti investigates an extraordinary natural phenomenon characterized by a strong historical connotation – the artist has in fact chosen to photograph vertical caves, chasms, large sinkholes in Istria and Karst known as foibe.

These sinkholes are a controversial subject – both in the public debate and in the personal exhibition of Silvia Mariotti in which sublime notions of nature intertwine with historical thought.

Photographs, videos, sculptures and sound installations convey the visitor a double sublime horror: the magnificence of the depicted nature that touches our perception, but also intends to convey historical implications. The title is a reference to memory, to the process of remembering, to casting light on a nocturnal subject through artistic research – Dawn is in fact the dawning that gradually leads to light.

This is an unpublished work that is offered to the public for the first time at the A plus A gallery. It consists of fifteen works including sculptures, photographs, videos and sound installations resulting from the study that Silvia Mariotti has been conducting on this subject for more than two years.

Works that the artist has developed through fieldwork in the landscape itself, searching for caves that have been abandoned for decades and are known only to local people.

It was then that for the first time the lens was attributed with the ability to make discoveries and the art of photography was born – the photographic and sculptural project of Silvia Mariotti is just like the enterprise of Nadar – a sublime discovery.

The exhibition of Silvia Mariotti is not only a revisit of recent history, but it also aims to be a revelation of a unique natural phenomenon.

In the work of the Italian artist, all these meanings manifest themselves in the eyes of the visitor who learns to juggle with multiple levels of reading that can open to interpretation and that can broaden the horizons which are often limited by historical traumas.

The exhibited works require above all an individual look and memory of the visitor, because the dimension of memory is something that mainly concerns the individual. And exactly this is the magic of the sublime: although it concerns the intimate sphere it has the strength to open up the access to a more authentic view of nature and history.