Emilia Telese
Emilia Telese (born 1973) is an Italian artist working with performance, visual, site-specific and video art. She is based in Lewes, East Sussex. Her most recent show was Life Begins at Land's End part of Rebirth Day, a concept organised by Michelangelo Pistoletto. Her video, along with works by other artists were shown at Musee du Louvre in Paris, Spring 2013.
Early life and education
Born in Sarno, Italy, in 1973, Telese graduated with a BA (Hons) in painting from the Fine Arts Academy, Florence in 1996 with a focus on 14th-century techniques, Arte Povera and political performance. In 1997 she studied acid-based printmaking techniques at the University of Brighton, where she continues to lecture.
Career overview
Often site specific, Telese's work deals with conscious engagement, political and social debate, non-verbal communication and the questioning and deconstruction of behaviour. Telese has dealt with the image of women in the media throughout her work, exploring beauty stereotypes and the distorted image of self through work such as "Life of a Star" of a Star] (presented at the 2005 Venice Biennale, a performance that explores our societies obsession with celebrity status. Telese walked though the streets of Venice with fake bodyguards pretending to be a celebrity. Crowds began to gather and passers by stopped her for an autograph even though they had no clue who she was. Life of a Star was subsequently shown in solo shows in Denmark and the UK. In 2006 she debuted "Perfect Ten" at Leeds City Art Gallery, a live art performance and installation that dealt with image obsession and the concept of the 'fitting in' by surrounding herself with hundreds of beauty products and magazines in a perfect circle around Antonio Canova's Hope of Venus. Telese also presented at the Endangered Species world summit, spearheaded by Susie Orbach, about women and the media at the Royal Festival Hall, February 2011. subsequently in New York City and Rio de Janeiro). Through the use of performance, installation and photography Telese aims to challenge the motives and expectations of the media surrounding the image of women, and their manipulation of reality through artificial means.
In 2006 Telese founded the Edible Construction Company with Chris Biddlecombe and Guyan Porter, an artist-led initiative creating socially engaged art in the public realm. The key focus of the group is to develop challenging and inspiring projects that have value beyond their aesthetic. This includes work such as The Rice Pavilion, a monumental installation to draw attention to food waste.[1] The Edible Construction Company involved in continuous research into international politics, renewable energy, recycling and the abuse of resources and is dedicated to the exploration and development of sustainable practice.
Alongside her artistic practice Telese produces and presents Radio Sophia, a bilingual radio programme in Italian and English language for Brighton community radio: Radio Reverb FM. She was a founding member of the Live Art Forum South East, a six-weekly meeting for those working in or curious about live art, performance, and cross-discipline art forms.[2] In 2008 she was a joint founder with Guyan Porter of an international artist group - The Global Collective and Brighton-based writing and contemporary art initiative The Doomsbury Set. Telese was an Artsway Associate artist until Artsway's closure in 2012.[3] Telese also works as Artists' Networks Coordinator for a-n The Artist Information Company and as a freelance art writer and specialist in artists' professional practice.[4]
She is a lecturer specialising in the relationship between art, economics and professional practice at more than ten UK and Italian institutions, including the University of Brighton; the Pistoletto Foundation, Biella, Italy; University for the Creative Arts, Farnham; Sheffield Hallam University; Sir John Cass Art School, London, the Fine Art Academy in Palermo; The University of the Arts, London. She represents practicing artists on the Arts Council England Regional Council. She has led nationwide debate events about art, politics and social engagements, which can be seen on her blog.
She has exhibited worldwide since 1994, including in the New Forest Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale (Venice, Italy), Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria), ZKM (Karlsruhe, Germany), Chashama (New York City, USA), Centro Cultural Telemar (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), Manege (St Petersburg, Russia), Leeds City Gallery, ArtSway (New Forest, UK) and the Freud Museum (London UK). Her world has been presented at major events at Tate Britain, Royal Festival Hall, and Her practice includes interactive and body-responsive technology, film and live art, installation, literature and public art.
Exhibitions
- 2013 Breaking the Mould, Brighton Digital Festival 2013[5]
- 2013 Life Begins at Land's End, participatory public art performance commissioned by Michelangelo Pistoletto, for Rebirth Day, at Musee Du Louvre, Paris
- 2013 Wavy Banners, public art commission, Contemporary Visual Art Projects - Vestjylland, Denmark
- 2012 About Ten Seconds, participatory public art installation at The Merchant City Festival, Glasgow (as the Edible Construction Company)
- 2011 Perfect 10, intervention at the Endangered Species Summit, Royal Festival Hall, London – toured to Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 2011 Woman's Hour radio programme series, Brighton Festival
- 2010 Get Real, digital media, performance and photography exhibition, Rochester Gallery
- 2007 Life of a Star, Video Installation and performance retrospective solo exhibition at Contemporary Visual Arts Centre Vestjylland, En Tangsogade 4 Udstilling, Denmark
- 2003 Sleepwalking, video installation at Christopher Gull, Brighton, and exhibition BAG gallery, Brighton, for Brighton Photofringe at Brighton Photobiennial 2003 http://www.photofringe.org
- 2003 Sleepwalking, a video and performance residency at Artsway, in September 2002; a solo exhibition at Artsway Gallery, New Forest in Spring 2003. www.artsway.org.uk
Participatory and engagement based commissions and projects
- 2011 Workshop facilitator for art & performance for adults with profound mental and physical disabilities, Making Art Work, Hastings
- 2011 The Coat Garden, participatory education and exhibition project involving children with and without disabilities, installation at Interaction MK, Milton Keynes
- 2010 Four Senses, participatory sensorial Olympic walk. Cultural Olympiad Open Weekend Commission, Artsway Gallery, Sway New Forest
- 2009 Dreamland, conceptual installation performance with Isidro Lopez-Aparicio and the communityof inhabitants of the Tifariti refugee camp, for Art Tifariti 2009 international event for the liberation of the Saharawi tribes of Western Sahara, presented at "The 28th State – European Borders in an Age of Anxiety" symposium, Tate Britain, Millbank London
- 2007 The Rice Project,[6] public art installation with community participation, Brighton/Scotland, a project by Edoardo Malagi, Italy, Emilia Telese, Guyan Porter and Chris Biddlecombe, Scotland (The Edible Construction Company); Jubilee Library, Brighton
- 2000 Le Quattro Stagioni, multimedia arts residency, Preston Primary School nr Canterbury, Magnetic South funded by Year Of the Artist Awards, Arts Council England
Group shows and events
- 2011 Beyond The Commission, installation at The Gallery, Art Institute Bournemouth
- 2011 Freud Museum 25th Anniversary Exhibition, London
- 2010 Calm Bafflement, The language of Gesture, speaker at non-verbal communication and art seminar, MOMA Museum of Modern Art Oxford
- 2010 Perfect 10, limited edition photographic prints, Artists Associates Arts Council England – Leverhulme Foundation commission, Artsway Gallery, Sway New Forest [www.artsway.org.uk]
- 2009 Start Point HOT! Florence Art Factory, group show, experimental art centre, Italy
- 2009 Dreamland, conceptual installation performance in collaboration with isidro Lopez Aparicio, at Tifariti Art Festival, Liberated Territories of Western Sahara, www.artifariti.org
- 2008 Viaggi - Journeys, exhibition curated by Telese and Rebecca Marshall for the Shot By The Sea Film Festival, organised by Electric Palace Cinema Hastings
- 2008 The Ring of Fire, installation, Blank Gallery, Brighton, at The Brighton Festival.
- 2007 Performance for Future Time and Tide, a debate exploring ideas about cultures of the future. Social anthropologist and writer Ted Polhemus. Organised by Electric Palace Cinema during the Shot by The Sea Film Festival, Hastings. Costume by Daniela Corcio.
- 2007 The Enemy, Installation performance at ZKM Centre for Contemporary Arts, Karlsruhe, Germany
- 2006/7 Emilia Paranoica, live art and video installation at the Paranoia Touring show - Leeds City Art Gallery – Leeds, Focal Point Gallery – Southend on Sea, Freud Museum, London
- 2006 Can We Break the Speed of Light? Video and digital art exhibition throughout Hastings, curated by Telese in collaboration with the Shot By The Sea/Off The Wall Hastings Film Festival
- 2006 Rogo, performance installation with Guyan Porter and Perfect 10 video installation and performance at Freeshout Festival, Prato, Italy www.freeshout.it
- 2006 Life Circle environmental installation, at Arti Nel Bosco, Pordenone, Italy www.artinelbosco.org
- 2006 Curfew, performance and installation, at City Running, Phoenix Gallery, Brighton Festival
- 2005 Sleepwalking, video installation, at Prg:Me, Centro Cultural Telemar, Rio de Janeiro
- 2005 Self-portrait with Victorian mirror and Superman", photography, at Completely Naked, Campbell Works gallery, London
- 2005 Life of a Star and Sleepwalking, performance and video installation at The New Forest Pavilion, Palazzo Zenobio, at The 51st Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy
- 2004 The Big Art Challenge, live performance at art based reality TV programme, FIVE
- 2004 Sleepwalking video installation at [re]:collection - documenting memory and remembering - Chashama Gallery, New York,
- 2003 limited edition prints, at Multiples, Permanent Gallery, Brighton
- 2003 Dark Symphony, in collaboration with Tim Mark Didymus. A 250,000-watt acoustic ambience in the Donaupark, at Ars Electronica 2003, Linz, Austria. Generative tonal algorithms provide the soundscape in the park on the banks of the Danube.
- 2003 Gesture III, interactive performance, at Labculture, Bridport, Dorset
- 2002 Parallel Lives, a photography installation recording the lives of different people around the world at a determined time of day, in collaboration with Russian artist Igor Baskin, shown at the Ekaterinburg Museum Of Modern Art, Siberia.
- 2002 Stage Land at Freeshout, independent Festival of New Contemporary Art in Prato, Italy
- 2002 Stage Land in collaboration with Tim Mark Didymus, for "Devolve into II", live web-stream video and sound installation at the "Intermedium II" Festival, ZKM (Zentrum fur Kunst Und Medientechnologie) Media Centre, Germany.
- 2001 Transmit II interactive performance with Liquidstatic, for the CYNET2001 Festival for Computer Aided Art, Dresden Germany
- 2000 Rename Real Name, sound installation with Tim Mark Didymus for the Generative Art 2000 Conference in Milan, Italy
- 2000 Transmit, interactive biofeedback installation performance, for the III Festival of Experimental Art & Performance, Manege Institute Of Contemporary Art, St Petersburg Russia
- 2000 TM, generative sound piece with Tim Mark Didymus for the 2000 Werkleitz Biennale of Electronic Arts, Werkleitz, Germany
- 2000 "10x5", Multimedia installation-performance, Hastings Museum
- 1999 Mecha-Voices, on line on-site sound installation with Tim Mark Didymus for "Sound Drifting", Ars Electronica 99 Festival of Electronic Arts, Linz, Austria
- 1999 Out of the Blue performance, Queen's Park, part of the Brighton Festival, Brighton UK
- 1998 Life of a Star performance, Live Art Weekend Fabrica Gallery, Brighton
- 1995 Kaben, performance & design installation, at "Ecologica 95", International Ecology Expo, Fortezza da Basso, Florence Italy
Awards
- 2011 Sussex Woman of The Year for Arts & Culture, awarded by the Sussex Medical School
- 2007 - 2010 Artists Associates, Artsway Gallery, New Forest, awarded by the Leverhulme Foundation
- 2006 The Royal Rice Pavilion, grant from Brighton & Hove City Council
- 2003 Sleepwalking, at Brighton Photobiennial 2003, award by Arts Council England
- 2003 Sleepwalking, at Artsway, New Forest, award by Arts Council England,
- 2002 Gesture, PVA Medialab, bursary award by Arts Council England; an interactive multimedia performance residency bursary for PVA Medialab
- 2001 Transmit II, CYNET2001, award by The British Council
- 2000 Le Quattro Stagioni, multimedia arts residency, Preston Primary School nr Canterbury, ] funded by Year Of the Artist Awards, Arts Council England
- 2000 Car Park, for "10x5", Hastings Museum, awards by Arts Council England South East, Millennium Festival Awards and Hastings Borough Council
Reviews and publications
BBC2, Five, RAI (Italian national TV), Current TV, BBC Southern Counties Radio Hampshire, The Sunday Telegraph, The Guardian, The Times, El Pais, The St Petersbourg Times, La Nazione, A-N magazine (www.a-n.co.uk), Art Monthly, Art Review, Arts-All, New Zealand, The Latest, The West Sussex Gazette, The Argus,
A chapter was dedicated to Telese in Petra Kuppers The Scar of Visibility: Medical Performances and Contemporary Art (Minnesota University Press 2007 ISBN 0-8166-4653-8), [7]
Economic arts
In 2007 Telese wrote for and edited Trade-Off, a special publication for a-n The Artists' Information Company about the art market from an economic, social and artist-led regeneration point of view, including papers by myself and seven other UK writers, following a series of events on the UK art market which Telese coordinated and organised in her role for the NAN initiative. These events explored different issues about the art market, such as locality, representation, and audience. They were held at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London; East Street Arts Studios, Leeds; Staffordshire University, Stoke-on-Trent, and Oriel Davis, Newtown, Wales. The events and publication shed light on the subject by drawing together the opinions of artists, curators and market experts and presenting an overview of the art market from a variety of angles to reveal how UK artists' relate to the idea of a "marketplace" in the context of their own ethical values, the demands of the commercial world and the still very conservative environment that supports the trade in contemporary art. Although being a professional artist is a difficult choice, and subject to preconceived ideas about its detachment to world economy, it is also a choice that demands a dialogue between the players of an art world that makes no apology for its own opacity and elitism.
In addition to the above, Telese published more than 60 articles on a-n magazine, one of the UK's most well known magazines for practicing artists. She was online editor of www.a-n.co.uk/nan from 2004 to 2011 and she coordinated the NAN bursaries for artists, which benefited 134 artists' groups and networks between 2004 and 2011.
Boards and advisory groups
- 2008 – 2011- Advisory Group member, The European Forum for Fine Art, a Europe-wide forum connected to ELIA, the European League of Institutes of the Arts, with a focus on researching a European model for the teaching of professional development for artists.
- 2009 – present - Regional Council Member for Arts Council England, South East
- 2009 – 2011– national advisory member, CCS Creative Cultural Skills, a DCMS body supporting training for professional development of artists and creative people in the UK
- 2004 – 2011- Advisory Group member of NAN, Networking Artists' Networks, a national initiative promoting and supporting artist-led activity in the UK
- 2001 – 2004 – Steering group member, APD (Artists' Professional Development) Network, a national network of more than 50 organisations offering artists' professional development services.
Academic papers
Alongside her artistic practice Telese has contributed to several academic papers, writing about space / art + environment[8] as well as the interaction between artist and the 'real world'.[9]
The profession of the artist in the real world: how does academic study and research relate to the art ecosystem? Dynamics and dialogue beyond academia, towards professional practice in Europe. [10]
Telese, E - Shaping artists' spaces -The Networking Artists' Networks initiative and the reshaping and enabling of cultural space "Sensi/able Spaces - Space, Art and the Environment " - SPARTEN conference, Reykjavík, June 2006, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007 [11]
References
- ↑ "The Rice Pavilion". Chiaroscuro magazine. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
- ↑ Fabrica. "Live Art Forum South East". Retrieved 3 March 2014.
- ↑ Artsway. "Artsway". Retrieved 3 March 2014.
- ↑ a-n online. "Emilia Telese". Retrieved 3 March 2014.
- ↑ " Break the Mould: People Take Part in the 3D Printing Revolution" 11 August 2013 Paul Caridad. Visual News.
- ↑ "The Rice Pavilion". My Brighton & Hove. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
- ↑ Kuppers, Petra (2007). The Scar of Visibility: Medical performances and Contemporary Art. USA: Minnesota University Press. ISBN 0-8166-4653-8.
- ↑ Telese, Emilia (2007). Shaping artists' spaces. UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781847183231.
- ↑ Telese, Emilia (2009). "The Gift Controversy at "Creative industries and regional policies: Making Space and Giving Space"". NAN Paper. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
- ↑ Telese, Emilia; Wiecherink, A; Pybus, A; Atherton, K; Malleo, M A (2009). "Transition and Progression in Fine Art Education and Research" (PDF). PARADOX: The Fine Art European Forum. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
- ↑ Telese, Emilia (2006). "Shaping artists' spaces" (PDF). a-n. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
External links
- Official website
- http://www.a-n.co.uk/artists_talking/artists_stories/single/63605
- http://artiststatements.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/emilia-telese/
- http://fabrica.org.uk/about/who-we-are/emilia-telese/
- https://www.youtube.com/user/emiartista
- Telese, Emilia. "Radio Sophia". Retrieved 3 March 2014.
- The Edible Construction Company. "The Edible Construction Company". Retrieved 3 March 2014.