What first comes to mind when analysing the artistic production of Clara Mallegni is the "lightness" which Italo Calvino speaks about in his book Lezioni americane (The American Lessons; Six Memos for the Next Millennium), defining it as the ability to "rise above the heaviness of the world", to comprehend its significance. Only, he believed, could a view from above allow the true meaning of things to emerge. Applied to Mallegni's works, this concept could be considered as an invitation to free ourselves from the burden of our own convictions, from all that prevents the imagination from taking flight. On the contrary, the artist demonstrates this ability by moving effortlessly between one language and another - painting, collage and sculpture -, telling us things from an unexpected point of view, claiming for herself the freedom of “perpetual flight”. An unconstrained creativity, able to shift from one experimentation to another with a sure and light step; passing from reality to dream, from the concrete nature of the earth beneath our feet to the suspended abstraction of the clouds. By observing her works, we also feel we can "take wing", allowing ourselves to be carried away by the magic of a fantasy world – or become children again as we listen to a fairy tale being read aloud. We can walk through a daydream or even immerse ourselves in the timeless atmosphere of an emotion that has been translated for us into an image.
Clara Mallegni asks this of us, as she dares us to leave behind what we think we know and to experience her work as a beautiful and most surprising adventure.
[Daniela Pronestì]
www.claramallegni.com