"In 2012 Vittoria Chierici tackled the sea, the place of movement par excellence: masses of water that ceaselessly change their state, even when they seem to be totally becalmed. The sea (as sailors have always thought) seems to be alive with its own inscrutable driving force. Vittoria Chierici decides to “paint the sea”. In order to do so, the artist deploys a very suggestive, very contemporary strategy. She prepares a Letter of intent to clarify her goals, for herself and for others: “Wanting to paint the sea does not necessarily mean doing seascapes: it is a symbolic concept, and it means taking liberties, outside the schemes of a system where art is fun but, at times, repetitive. Painting, furthermore, is a way of thinking in colours. I have already found some pictorial concepts with which to begin. For example, the use of depth of field, in the filmic sense of the term, in place of perspective used in the graphic sense. An idea already applied to the series of the ‘Battle of Anghiari’ […]. In painting, the sea has nearly always been seen from the coast, from a certain distance. The light of the squalling sea, from Turner to Van Gogh. The infinite space, from Füssli to Friedrich and Winslow Homer. I would like to change this vantage point. Or, more precisely, to discover another vantage point”.
This is her “Project”. To start with a project is substantially different from starting with an idea or a subject, because it is something humanly dynamic, establishing a way of creating and living in motion: “The project is like an adventure. It is the start of an experience. It is a starting point that moves, changes, expands in the ways of interpreting the language. A project can also determine a way of living. Often I think, for example, about painting or making a work in the place of the project. En plein air, so to speak, in the place where I gather the notions and sensations of the experience I want to have. It is not always possible, and I often wind up completing a group of works in the studio. I would like to work while roaming, like the troubadours, the poets of the past”.
The appeal “Sailing Away to Paint the Sea”, sent to friends and collectors, has gained 85 backers, above all in Italy and the United States. Each backer contributes one share of the sum that will allow Vittoria Chierici to take her voyage on the sea. Each of these “project founders” will be given, in exchange, a painting made during the course of her journey."

(Francesco Matteo Cataluccio, Invetario #7,  p. 148, Mantova 2013).

link to full catalogue

Exhibitions

SUNY Maritime College, Stephen B. Luce Library, Sailing Away to Paint the Sea: a Lecture and Art Exhibition by Vittoria Chierici, on October 18, 2013, New York.

Frigoriferi Milanesi,  opening on February 7th, Milano. Projection of  David Roy 's film, Sailing away to Paint the Sea, You tube link.

Cultura Italiana,  February 21 2013, Bologna, Italy. Collaboration with pianist and composer Marco Dalpane.

Projection of Hands in Blu, film by composer Maurizio Pisati. 

Reviews

Francesca Tarantino, Sul Tavolo del Pirata, America Oggi – La voce di New York, October 28, 2012, New York.  English version

Alice Amadei, Sailing away to Paint the Sea, ARTincontro, February 6 2013, Bologna, Italy.

Francesco Matteo Cataluccio, Vittoria Chierici. Voglio viaggiare su una nave per dipingere il mare/ Sailing away to Paint the Sea, Inventario #7, June 2013,  Mantova, Italy. See PDF

Emanuela Zanon, Vittoria Chierici: Sailing away to Paint the Sea (Voglio viaggiare su una nave per dipingere il mare) June 11 2013. See PDF and English version