Forms of non-power, 2019, Present Future, Artissima, Turin

Caterina Silva’s painting is an attempt at letting the space speak; eluding the straight forward production of meaning, her works are open to interpretation. Using various materials, layers of texture and techniques, such as frottage, traces of pour, folds, erasure with a washing machine, she masters controlled randomness to create topographical portraits - the canvases are body size, vertical. Silva’s floor pieces made of leftover elements demonstrate her conception of the painting as an object.
Word-less and sign-less, yet the work is not abstract, it enacts a reflection on power and powerlessness. In her performances, language resurfaces just as in the video “Diario Manifesto”, which paradoxically completes her practice, by being full of words and images. An ongoing video collage, this work reconstructs the struggles for freedom in Rome in the 1960 and 70s.

Text by Emilie Villez
Cat. Artissima 2019