I think there’s a pain somewhere in the room, said Mrs Gradgrind, but I couldn’t positively say that I have got it.
—Charles Dickens, Hard Times
In 2021, Rebecca Moccia won the International Research Grant promoted by the General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture within the Italian Council programme. Over the past 3 years, Moccia, alongside the Ministry of Loneliness, has explored the collective and political states of loneliness, investigating its causes and possible solutions.
This research took place through residencies, workshops and site-specific installations in collaboration with Outset England, Jupiter Woods (London), Magazzino Italian Art (Cold Spring, New York), the Italian Embassy in Tokyo, Fondazione ICA Milano and Careof (Milan). The majority of the works exhibited were specifically created for the exhibition and gallery spaces, supporting a new tour of the gallery’s historical spaces in Turin.
The quote from Hard Times, by Charles Dickens inspired the exhibitions title and was chosen by the artist as it exemplifies the vision of emotional states that guides Moccia’s practice. Previously used by philosopher Tonino Griffero, in similar sematic contexts, it supports Moccia’s exploration into the relationships between spaces, bodies and contexts.
For the artist, places and moments carry with them particular atmospheres and spatialised emotions that do not belong to a subject. These emotions come from outside, from that environment and its atmosphere. Starting from this assumption, Moccia’s research on Solitude also focused on how this emotional state and its perception in contemporary society is shaped by the political and social structures in which we live. Contrary to common opinion and pandemic rhetoric, in Rebecca Moccia’s research, loneliness emerges not as a psychological problem of the individual, but as a shared and collective feeling that permeates western societies.
What if loneliness was a political issue, rather than an individual one? A collective feeling. By directing pain toward its actual cause, Could we turn it into a tool of struggle? (script from Ministries of Loneliness)
Loneliness can lead to physical and emotional stress, causing fatigue and inflammation. However, Moccia’s research and works note that if the world were to acknowledge the political significance of loneliness, it has the potential to be transformed into the warmth of a shared community, united in their struggles, albeit invisible.
Another theme that emerges from Moccia’s research and exhibited works is temperature, investigating its manifestations both physically and emotionally. The series Cold as You Are (2022), a collection of thermal images depicting places, bodies and situations, explores this theme in depth.
Accompanying this series are Loneliness Scales, ceramic works conceived for the solo exhibition at the ICA Foundation in Milan in 2023. The non-fiction film Ministries of Loneliness (presented at the prestigious International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and winner of the ArteVisione prize at Careof Milan, 2023), together with the new site-specific installation How Often Do You Feel Heard and the large tapestry A Body That Sets On Fire, made in collaboration with Giovanni Bonotto and winner of the A Collection prize at ArtVerona2022, are also exhibited.
Davide Mazzoleni says: “We have been working with Rebecca Moccia since 2018. She is the youngest artist with whom we collaborate; the rigour of her research, the formal and stylistic outcome of her work in connection with the exhibition space, her socio-political commitment, are always a source of enrichment and reflection. We are delighted to present in the historical spaces of Turin this new important moment in her journey and establish her further within the Italian art scene and beyond.”
at Mazzoleni, Turin
until November 18, 2023
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