Presence by Absence (veniamo dal lago)
Sabrina Mandelli
Presence by Absence (veniamo dal lago) is an archival space where two seemingly separate worlds, yet united by a common language, meet in a play between voids and interpretative experiments. In the installation the objects belonging to the artist's late grandfather and the "Stracciatella" stones, shaped by nature, are arranged on shelves on opposite walls, creating a visual dialogue between nature and culture, preservation and transformation.
The archive is activated through the artist's performative intervention, as she interacts with the "Stracciatella" stones, cleaning and arranging them in an act that evolves from practical necessity to a ritual of care and interaction with the material.
The work is accompanied by a booklet that collects codes, documentation of the objects selected for the installation, and photographs of the entire archive, offering a trace of the research process.
An audio installation fills the space with the artist's voice reading the handwritten notebook of her grandfather, an intimate document that preserves dialectal words, proverbs, and stories from his time. Finally, the installation invites the viewer to reflect on cultural heritage and grief, exploring the relationship between memory, absence, and the meaning we attribute to objects and stories of the past.
Degree project by Sabrina Mandelli for the exam session 2024/25, 25.1 at the Faculty of Design and Art of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
supervisor: Gerhard Glüher – second supervisor: Hannes Egger
