Interview
Giovanna Berni
Giovanna is an architect specialized in bio-architecture. As an architect she studied at the University of Florence, where the landscape, gardens and urban planning sections have important masters. Bio-architecture especially with INBAR. She studied art for 12 years with the Ginette Martenot Method at the atelier de Florence, from the ages of 8 to 20. In the Florence and Paris offices, she has prepared a 3-year dossier to professionally teach the Ginette Martenot teaching method. She works as a bio-architect, artist, Feng Shui consultant, siddhi meditator and actively uses art, greenery and feng shui in her work, above all to intervene in the redevelopment or in the creation of installations. In her Bio-architecture Atelier, she organizes art workshops, with the name Ecoartpoints, almost always oriented to work on nature, place, landscape, recycled materials. Latest site specific interventions in Florence, in the unknown historical spaces of the city in contact with nature.
The artistic production, to date, counts a series of tempera and pencils (Echoes of color), exhibited in solo exhibitions and in London, a series of oil palette knives (Dialogues around fire), exhibited on solo exhibitions in Florence, a series of photographic art with stones (The sound of silence), presented at the Luxembourg Art Prize 2021, various series of informal photographic art with recycled materials and above all plastics and use of colour, several of which were published and then collected in 5 collections of Nft photographic art on Opensea .io , installations, drawings of sculpture, classic landscapes. Future works on art and music. She has won some regional awards with oil palette knives. The Certificate of Merit for Artistic Career at the Luxembourg Art Prize 2021-22. She have published 18 works in the magazines Art Now,3 on Art Tour International and 9 in the collection Shots to tell at n. 05. Included in the catalog of the first biennial tour of Europe, and in the Artfusion and Eternity exhibitions, of the London gallery The Holy Art. Membershipe Atim Artist for a Green Planet (Hearth Day 2022). Selected among the 60 Top Art Masters 2023 by Art Tour International. Artist for peace, with Unicef, in 2022, to assist children in Ukraine. He defines himself as an Indie artist, of the art scene, for criticism, concept, niche work. In 2021, Giovannella started a photographic research, photographs of recycled materials, especially plastics, composed in landscapes or figures and set on cardboard, natural, a mixture of the two. The research is characterized by strong material power and informal abstract expression. The photographic base has been enriched by digital research, choosing two types of finishing, digital brush, a dialogue between material and colour, where the digital color remains classically given, or color effects, intended to variegate the imagined landscapes. As with any informal, there are messages of transformation inherent in the images. Stimuli in the directions to change the world, dialogue between old and new, integrate rounded languages, lightness of being. The series has been organized into collections and is available in NFT on Opensea.io. A collection of cultural countertrend.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I studied art as a child at the Atelier Ginette Martenot in Florence, then Architecture at the University of Florence, specializing in bio-architecture at the National Institute of Bio-architecture, and then I did continuous spiritual research with the idea of unity ' of the religions of Pope John Paul. Today therefore I have a sensitivity towards nature, landscape, classic art tools, spiritual conceptual tools for discussions and I am doing experimental research among contemporary art tools, for example photography on recycled and digitally processed materials or installations. Research into my artistic world began as discussion companions to my work as an architect, a means to broaden my dialogues. I immediately received some responses, such as Tuscan prizes for oil spatulas and various invitations to artistic participation, then in 2020, I launched the new work of informal photographic art and had more visibility, with prizes and publications. Today I define myself as an Indie, conceptual, critical, niche artist.”
What does your work aim to say? Does it comment on any current social or political issues?
“The work of an architect tells of a man in the place, the installation does so in a more artistic way, that is, far from the problems of technique, while art, in a more pure way, tells the story of the man inside. I like two things about this medium: telling the miracles that he has difficulty with and the subtle criticism of today's world. Nothing good happens today in politics or society. On a social level there are main difficulties, living in a healthy way, with continuity to classical or ancient culture, raising dreams that are nothing other than restless or scientifically incorrect, departure from nature or ethics as teachers). Just as man is in extreme difficulty because he created his universe badly, politics is even more alien. Above all, politicians today have not hit on the best concept for solving national and international problems: promoting a non-integrated but fraternal system among the best Western society, the one that offers movement and abundance, the basis for the dreams of a man's eyes, not disturbing the resources, and the greater number of the south poles, problems of the areas or civilizations with less development. Politics is still biased, not all-encompassing, for example of this, as I would dream.”
Do you plan your work in advance, or is it improvisation?
“In this period, my work is experimental and extemporaneous. In my method, however, after throwing experiences, I summarize critical frameworks and in the next phase, I reorganize and implement the concepts that I liked.”
Are there any art world trends you are following?
“Perhaps, because I am following a critical and intellectual phase, I love and dream of following artists who deal more with colour, even the lesser-known ones, in the future. Tempera, oil, acrylic, on an abstract base with large canvases. Or those who draw Afro themes, or children's stories. I believe that after my critical phase I will abandon myself to the dream and plan of this. I find the names that appear in today's exhibitions all too artificial to dream or I contrast them in ideas.”
What process, materials and techniques do you use to create your artwork?
“The works of the last three years are informal photographic art. I work with my camera, photographing details, stories, compositions with materials that I collect. Then I look at all the photographic drafts, make thematic collections and rework them with colour. I really love coloring with a brush. Color on the photographed matter. or I experiment with diversified colorful landscapes with digital effects. Meanwhile, I'm thinking about the method and ideas for art and music installations that inspire me in this period.”
“The work of an architect tells of a man in the place, the installation does so in a more artistic way, that is, far from the problems of technique, while art, in a more pure way, tells the story of the man inside.”
What does your art mean to you?
“It is an internal space to create what isn't there and communicate your ideas to the world. A banner of topics. Images to ask to change the world. Transformation.”
What’s your favorite artwork and why?
“I have several favorites from each collection. Perhaps, however, I am more attached to the one that has not yet impressed me much, the part that talks about silence and lightness of being, themes that represent me more deeply, which is why I love the work "Red and turquoise in the space," a photograph of pebbles, then painted with aerial brushstrokes of two colors. I would like the world to be more captivated by what is not normally captivating but expands other spaces of consciousness, the lighter part of a human being.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“In this period, the series The War of Tomatoes, finalist of the Virtually 02 award, is exhibited online on the Etherea gallery, with the other finalists, on the Photoprojectpro.com portal. A series of my works is also exhibited on Artboxy, under the name Specialoceandrop, and I participate in various exhibitions with them on a monthly basis. All the informal photographic art collections are exhibited on Opensea.io under the name Specialoceandrop, in the form of Nft. Recently, one of my series has been on Anasaea and I am preparing an exhibition of 24 works for them, with the collections of the Tomato War and Dirty Petrol.”
Instagram: @giovannellaberni
