Gaia Fugazza Italian, b. 1985

Gaia Fugazza’s (b.1985 Italy) practice encompasses the creation of objects and performances that delve into the concept of tacit knowledge while challenging the Cartesian schism between the body and the mind and between subjects and the environment.
 
By rejecting an anthropocentric worldview, Fugazza portrays plants, animals, minerals, and natural elements as sentient beings equal to humans. The subjects in her work have re-surfaced from directly felt emotions, observations, and experiences. Their forms are the result of a process that accesses the unconscious through making.
 
Fugazza uses experimental techniques informed by the revival of ancient practices that prioritize knowledge’s transmission through craft. Materials compete and mingle with the figurative elements of her work, each carrying metaphorical significance. Techniques are chosen both for their performative value and for their relevance in contemporary society.
 
Her artworks create a constellation of punctuations, drawing inspiration from everyday observations and stretching them into archetypal patterns, bridging subjects as disparate as transcendental practices, plant knowledge, gender, reproduction and economy, nomadism, and mobile technology. Fugazza’s images appear devoid of a specific context; rather than representing individual events in a linear history, they evoke recurrent elements of a circular one. The same themes reappear in different mediums whose specific physicality highlights a different perspective on them. This technique allows reflections, actions, and abstract concepts to be treated as individuals composed of many personality traits.
 
Fugazza’s performances address the tension between presence and distraction, choreographing unexpected situations that invite the audience to participate as collaborators in experiments or rituals. These experiences foster a sense of self-awareness and communal presence within an animist landscape.
 
Fugazza’s currently lives in London UK.  She holds an MFA from Chelsea College of Arts, UAL (2014). Recent and duo solo exhibitions include a Fool with a tool, Case Chiuse; Milano, Virginity is not a Contraceptive, Richard Saltoun; Antidotes and their couterparts, Häusler Contemporary Zurich, Ostaggi e Amici, Galleriapiù; Bologna. 
 
Her work has been featured in Biennials and institutional shows such as the Lofoten International Art Festival, 13 Baltic Triennial, London; Premio Cairo, Milan; Glasstress, Venice; Mediterranea, Milan; The London Open, Whitechapel Gallery, London; Hrm 199 Ltd, Tinguely Museum, Basel. 
 
Her performances have been presented at the Royal Academy of Arts, London; Lisson Gallery, London; South London Gallery, London; LUX, London and Kunsthall Oslo.
 
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