“Libera-mente” is the title of a collective exhibition curated by Roberta Mandoliti and Laura Di Stefano, hosted at Impact Hub, an art gallery in Rome, from July to September 2022. Not only an exhibition but also a place where different art expressions freely meet. Painting, sculpture, video art, engraving, photography, and illustration all aim to open the spectator’s view to other possible worlds because reality dwells inside the imagination. The common thread of Libera-mente is the unlimited mind, where free associations, thoughts, and ideas are originated and translated into images, sometimes abstract, sometimes dreamlike.

Impact Hub becomes an inclusive and democratic place that is aware of the different contemporary communication modalities, resulting in hybridization. During the Vernissage, actor, and director Giovanni Nardoni underlined the continuous struggle for the artists to express themselves against social constraints that try to keep them inoffensive. Actors struggle in finding their own esthetic style and their main difficulty is the search for their freedom of mind, which may be intellectually straining, causing deep lifelong suffering.

Artists and Works

Lucilla Monardi

“In your shoes” is the title of the extraordinary work of Lucilla Monardi. Agnes Richter was a German seamstress who was interned in a psychiatric hospital in Heidelberg by the will of his father and brother after some disappointments.

Her memory survived thanks to a little sewn jacket that she used to embroider during her stay using the fabric of the uniforms, which becomes something warm and intimate instead of a cold and institutional piece of garment. The painting on the side reproduces the front of the jacket with the artist’s measurements, while the tridimensional model is done with the real measurements, to show how small and fragile the girl was.

This work is a reflection on isolation and on the loss of dignity, as well as an encouragement to try to be in others’ shoes to understand instead of judging.

Letizia Ardillo

Letizia Ardillo’s installation: “The forms of knowledge” is made with 22 cards 20 X 22 cm. each represents the Jewish alphabet. In Jewish tradition, especially Cabbalà, letters are a gateway to holy scriptures, especially in the “formation book “one of the most ancient mystic Jewish books that tell creation through letters exchange. Mixed techniques such as collage, gold and silver leaf, ancient paper, pencil pigments, and ink on Fabriano paper, proposes. The letters tell the creation story.

Lidia Bruno

In her work “ Legami II” she explains the ties with a work series(etching, aquatint, soft paint on color-made paper) where there are attractions and rejections generated by affinity and opposing. Mind and body dialogue as one unique entity. The mind is free to float but connected to the body at the same time. Lidia Bruno’s artistic research combines the graphic sign as a trace of her, to illustration and visionary style. The technique that best suits her is engraving.

Lorena Tarantini

The three works “Blind drawings” (graphite powder, oil on paper, dusting paper) have been made with the eyes blindfolded. The inspiration is the BTD (Blind Time Drawing) of the USA artist Robert Morris, a representative of Minimal art. This allows the artist to shut their eyes losing conventional references and open toward other unknown visions.

Mirella Cascini Pensa

The cycle “Ombre” (Shadows) represents the artist’s research that takes a materialization concretization and chromatization of the essence of being that is the shadow (Lucrezia Rubini).“I follow the shadow to achieve the light”, says the artist “I model the essence to find the presence.”

Simona Gasperini

She dedicates the last collages series to Emily Dickinson who used to live alone in her own room. This isolation does not mean denial of the world. She saw God through every single sign of nature against the puritan society made of dark and penitence. (Penelope Filacchione)That’s why Simona Gasperini mainly uses white that is not empty but brings light and fullness.

Paolo Garau

The “ Introspezioni classiche” (classical introspection) gives an unusual and treasured existential itinerary. The author wants you to move from the front to the side and back of the sculpture in a circular observation coming back to the previous position. The result that should be established is a deep dialogue with the statue that must be therefore carefully and overall questioned.

Raffaele Letizia

“Woman in the space”-(mixed technique on paper) depicts a self-confident woman who moves in the space in all her femininity and sensuality. It is a work created for a series called” corpi comunicanti” (interlinked bodies) and represents the woman's body moving in the surrounding area and does not care about social agreements, without fear of prejudices; she is aware of her “virility” and proud of her seductive ability.

Roberta Mandoliti

Her work is the video: “Rapsodie docu(componi)menti.

In music, a rhapsody is a free composition of popular origin from Greek with an epic meaning, made to underline the instrumental virtuosities. In this work, Rapsodie is a hybrid composition made with abstract images without any sound, however evoking action and a free and varied rhythm. A composition made by one take, without any cuts, of a real farmer's life.

Lorenzo Colli

Lorenzo Colli’s video “A carcioffola se monna a na foglia a’ vota” shows the artichoke in its meaning according to ancient myth, culture, and religion (it was banned by Catholic Church) and history.

Emanuela Sandu

Her three single works are part of the book “ il bosco cantava I ricordi”. A story focused on the importance of memories as they help us keep our roots. The illustration: “ Alla stazione” depicts two lovers; perhaps they are meeting for the first time, or maybe they are separating or maybe the lady is no longer there, she is a sheer light presence. Trains pass as time passes, but memories are stronger. He waits for her. In the illustration: “ Sali e togliti la maschera” there is the theme of identity and diversity. Girls with different animal masks live and play on a tree.

Daniele Romaniello

His photo project on handmade paper is called: Nouveau libertà is an ancient and unique procedure, using hand-crafted paper on which a digital retro photo is printed. His project creates synergies among liberty style, craft work, and contemporary photos.

Laura Di Stefano

Artist’s book, book deals with the sad story of Olga Spessivtzeva a Russian ballet dancer during the Russian revolution.

The main role for which she was well-known was “Giselle”, a very delicate and fragile girl betrayed by a man she loved. After discovering the deceiving, she became insane and died.

She became a “Villi”, who, according to the Slavic tradition is ethereal and night creatures, hanging around the woods, looking for revenge towards deceiving men, making them dance until their death. Olga was perfect for the role; not only did she have an unhappy love and a mental collapse followed by her detention for 22 years in a psychiatric hospital but also, like Giselle, was physically fragile and perfect for a romantic role. The illustrations in the book portray Olga as a child, dreaming that she will be a star, her obsessive thoughts, and anxieties during the Russian revolution, the heartbreak of unreciprocated love, a ballet suit, hanging, to describe her career, the unsettling feeling of Giselle in the wood. In the last illustration, her essence comes out strongly through the red of a rose, being both a homage to her spirit and a positive message for her life entirely dedicated to the wonderful art of Ballet.