31/03/23
Interview with Adelaide Cioni
Adelaide Cioni (b1976, Bologna, Italy) uses simple forms – a cross, a triangle, a circle – and repeats them to create patterns, which she paints, draws or stitches on to fabric. In her Songs series, currently on show at Mimosa House, London, and conceived during a residency at Sol LeWitt’s former studio in Spoleto, Italy, Cioni has hung linen squares throughout the ground floor space of the gallery, making the viewer an unintentional participant in a dialogue that goes beyond verbal articulation or linguistic concept, returning to some abstract, primal idea, unencumbered by association. Upstairs, large fabric works are draped over the walls and floor, creating bright, light spaces, outside our usual existence. Three costumes hang primed – one black-and-white chequered; one with blue triangles arranged to give the effect of feathers; and one with red circles and dots, incredibly visceral and suggestive of the feminine form – ready and waiting to have life breathed into them, which occurs when three dancers come to enact a series of three separate performances, or conversations, set to music by Cioni’s collaborator, Dom Bouffard. The simplicity of Cioni’s work belies its complexity.
Studio International visited Mimosa House, ahead of the exhibition opening, and spoke to Cioni about pattern, translation, collaboration and artistic inspiration.
Read the full interview here