COMMISSION #2 – LUISA GARDINI

On the occasion of the Spring Equinox, IUNO presents its second commission, carried out by Luisa Gardini (Ravenna, 1935).
Luisa Gardini's commission for IUNO appears as an invocation, a prayer formulated through the ritual of gesture and color. The four large letters that stand out on the sheet are drawn with a red pastel that seems to recall the feral and vital qualities of the Mother Goddess.
At the center, like a relic, is a small image—the reproduction of a headless bust, which introduces an iconic element into the work. The statue has no identity, but simultaneously seems to assume the features of Juno, depicted in a hieratic pose and dressed in drapery that falls over her breasts, attributes of maternity and fertility. The representation of the goddess is therefore first entrusted to her name. The word replaces the image.
However, the substitution is only apparent; drawing and writing are always equivalent in the work of Luisa Gardini. It is in the hand that the origin of each expression can be traced. Gesture is the principle of every form of language.

Luisa Gardini, Untitled, 2021
Oil pastel and collage on paper, 55.5 x 75.5 cm

Text by Giulia Gaibisso