Paola Gandolfi

Approaching Paola Gandolfi’s paintings means, first of all, dealing up-close with the female figure, the psychic dynamics that define its current gender identity, and its slowest historical transformations in society. The artist’s interest in post-Freudian theories allows her, often in a divining way, to reach a high-density “psycho-iconism” in her oeuvre. Like a puzzle, the paintings wait to be interpreted, disarmed like a time bomb. When animation is added to painting it becomes apparent how behind the immobility of the work there lies infinite motion, unveiled by the video-animation La recherche de ma mère, directed by Paola Gandolfi and Francesca Ravello. This book documents the nineteen paintings used for the video, including a selection of relating frames.

Contents

Gaze Politics
Maria Rosa Sossai

Video Puzzle
Edward Lucie-Smith

The Name P-A-O-L-A
Riccardo Giagni

Vision and Movement
Miriam Mirolla

La recherche de ma mère. “Seeing” and Other Topics
Paola Gandolfi, Miriam Mirolla

DVD Desiderio Vedendo Donne (Desire seeing women)
Francesca Ravello

Letter to Paola
Elena Chiesa

Catalogue of the nineteen works that compose the video-animation 'La recherche de ma mère' and a selection of relating frames

Appendix