ELISA BERTAGLIA
Spot

Martina Corbetta_Via Milano, 98. Giussano (MB)
27.11.2020 – 18.12.2020

Giussano, November 3rd 2020…last night, while on TV I was listening to the news by our Prime Minister, to distract myself I was opening, reading, closing, re-opening, leafing trough pages of several books piled up on the small table in the living room when I instinctively said loudly the expression: “Your only duty is to save your dreams” by Amedeo Modigliani.

I thought at it for still a second this morning and the echo of these words rumbled in my head. Yes, Spot was precisely born by a duty. The duty not to stop, to still believe in our job and most of all to protect what belong to us. Art for us is not just an ‘amusement’, it is a work. We do not wait for the inspiration, we seek for it. And never like in this historic moment the impossibility to schedule something, to travel, to discuss in person makes everything very hard, but not impossible. I met up with Elisa two weeks ago in a bar in the center of Milan for a hot tea with biscuits. The situation was different from today. We were talking to do a presentation of some new artworks: a body of paintings realized during the last months, a series of works that show the most actual peculiarities of her research. We were planning an event on invitation, and as we like so much, we wanted to create a kind of ‘salon’ where Elisa herself would have illustrated the new works. That would have been a collective moment where the artist and the collectors could speak vis a vis (face to face) in a fall Saturday afternoon.

The day after, enthusiast for this decision I set up the show. I surrendered by the energy seeing the paintings hanging on the walls. The same evening, in the silence of those short days, I was observing work by work and I could appreciate even more every single detail. I love to have the possibility to enjoy the paintings alone in the gallery and at the same time I can not wait for sharing my emotions and thoughts with who like me is passionate by Elisa’s work since years. We had a call where we fixed a date for our talk. We do not need a lot of time to arrange everything. The works were in the gallery and our contact net was ready. November 6th. Great! In few hours, optimistic and happy, we had a schedule. But unfortunately, with the same rapidity, the new rules decided by the Italian Govern imposed us new restrictions. I completely detached the head from the work. For two days I just had long sport sessions. I did not look at the phone. I did not have the desire to hear from anybody. I admit it, I was worried. For the health and safety of everybody first of all, and for the economic impact we would have going to face. It is difficult.

On Monday, thinking that obviously this does not depend on us, I put aside the discouragement and I moved to the Plan B. Elisa and I decided, backing ourselves up, that we had to do something. But what? We can’t do the opening, can we? So we won’t do it! But we won’t for sure stay here passively reading a plot with no hope. We decided to share the work of the last months in a spontaneous way, writing our impressions as if we are informally speaking with a friend in front of a painting. (Martina Corbetta)

Elisa Bertaglia
Singing over the Bones, 2019
Watercolor and oil on silk, concrete. 36.5x114x11cm