2020-2022
Project Marta Lodola, curated by IoDeposito
Video: performance Marta Lodola, camera Alfonso Moral, duration 18 min, stereo Materials: water, white starch, 300 liters of soil, 2 m juta, lavender essential oil, hanged apples, wood stick, 1 kg rice
Performance: performance Marta Lodola, Camera Antonella Fuentes, duration 30 min. Materials: water, 2 glass vases, performer voice.
Events B#Side The River, IoDeposito, Cervignano del Friuli, Italy (2022), Acciones al Margen, Colombia (2022), Satellite Art Show and Performance Is Alive, Miami (2021), Peripheral Memories, IoDeposito, Trieste (2021)
“Dissolvenze” is a multidisciplinary performance project by Marta Lodola, dedicated to the industrial archaeological site of Amideria Chiozza (Ruda, Udine IT), which was active from 1865 to 1986. During World War I, Amideria was used as Aid Station. This historical place was a safe working environment for women and helped the local society to emancipate itself from the mere agriculture society. It completely transformed the rural territory in a more progressive one, creating new railways and enhancing both literacy and graduation rate in the region. The incredible interconnected experiences within this place still exist in relation to the ancient scientific research that allowed Amideria to become one of the most important and well known natural starch producer all over the world.
The choice to maintain the traditional process was the reason of its closing. Despite the fact that the extracted starch was one of the highest quality, the long time needed for the entire process couldn’t be as competitive as the new fast and chemical ones introduced to the market. That’s why the memory of Amideria is now celebrated, to remember how both ethical and ecological choices are necessary nowadays, when capitalism destroys all the natural methods used to transform natural materials.
The process of research was developed through: interviews with ex-workers and members of the Association Amideria Chiozza, a performative short movie, a site-specific interactive performance where the population was invited to the site to live a common cathartic experience. Furthermore, Amideria became a *tableau vivant* during the workshop for teenagers, in which Lodola guided the group through a performative interaction with the environment.
still from video, camera Alfonso Moral
The memory of this industrial archaeological site is metaphorically evoked through the video produced during the pandemic, between 2020 and 2021 (camera: Alfonso Moral), in which the voices of ex-workers and their family members are combined with archetypal performative interactions between the body and the materials that were used in the production.
The live performance focuses on water, because this sacred natural element was the reason why the factory was located in this area. The large amount of available water, the nearby “La Fredda” (the cold) canal, allowed the factory to use it during the whole production process. It was pumped through the entire structure, built to facilitate its way to the ground floor. The water was given back to the environment without any contamination after its use.
In 2022, when the second part of the performance took place with a video installation, the region suffered from lack of water and “La Fredda” river was empty since some months. Each person was invited, one by one, to impress desires and old memories related to the place on a few water drops placed in their hands, which afterwards I gave back to the site forever, watering an oak tree.
This action was also an offer to the “Aganis”, who in Friuli’s popular tradition where considered guardians, witches and fairies of the water. These entities were often portrayed as monsters with terrible intentions, subjected to the blame of catholic society and popular mysticism that probably influenced their negative image instead of their spiritual one. Recollecting this popular belief I invited the people to live a common experience in this abandoned site, in order to intentionally participate to its cultural and social rebirth.
camera and ph Antonella Fuentes