Beatrice Pediconi

Beatrice Pediconi was born in Rome. In 2010 she moved to New York where she currently lives and work.

I am interested in the transience and vulnerability of our existence and in the
uncertainty of our contemporary life. Movement and displacement are recurrent themes in my works where it is not the water that moves, but all the elements I make pass through it. First of all, it is the technique itself of
painting on water that represents the fragile and ephemeral world we live in today. This has been my original intention since 2003, when I began to develop this particular technique. My art focuses on capturing the fleeting moments between creation and destruction, and I invite the viewer to delve into the micro and macro cosmos that I conjure up before they vanish again. I do this through a complex process that involves chemistry, painting, photography, video and installation. The process of working with materials that won’t remain stable, that live just for a short period of time and that cannot be recreated or restored, conceptually emphasizes all of life’s vulnerability.
My most recent project, Alien/Alieno (2016), in which I record oil painting on water, is a reflection on the concept of the unknown in various areas—from the personal, the natural, to the political. It addresses the issue of the foreigners too. The resulting photographs resemble aerial views of seascapes and satellite
images of places that we are unable to identify. The video is an open window to a world that we perceive differently and compare to the one we are used to seeing; whether the images refer to an interior part of our body or to a territorial area remains ambiguous. The viewer is invited to enter an alien yet strangely familiar universe, an environment or a space that becomes a vessel that belongs to all the visitors. My works are never documents, instead they are metaphors of issues eliciting emotional responses. The title Alien/Alieno addresses the relationship between known and unknown worlds, between the familiar and the unfamiliar. It is also how the American Government defines those who are not legal citizens. As an Italian who has been living in the United States for eight years, I am still very aware of my otherness, while feeling at the same time that we are all, in many ways, citizens of the same world.

Beatrice Pediconi was born in Rome and studied Architecture both in Rome and Paris.

Pediconi’s recent solo exhibitions include Dimensioni Variabili, Z2O Sara Zanin, Rome, Italy (2017), Alien/Alieno, sepiaEye gallery, New York (2016), Untitled at the Macro Museum, Rome, Italy (2015), Ephemeral Pigments, The Institute of Fine Arts, New York (2014) and 9’/Unlimited, Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy (2013-2014). Notable International group exhibitions include The Other View, Italian Women photographers 1965-2015, Palazzo della Triennale Milan, Italy (2016), Plumbing- Sequence VII-Real Time Video Art Biennale, Reykjavik, Iceland (2015), Ensemble- Quand La Maison Européenne de la Photographie Collectionne, Les Rencontres des
Arles, Arles, France (2015), Expression Méditerranée de la Poesie à l’ engagement, Hôtel des Artes, Toulon, France (2015), The Polaroid Years, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY (2013), L’eau et les Rêves, Normandie Impressionist Festival, Normandie, France (2013), The Edge of Vision, Aperture Foundation, NY (2012), La Magnifica Ossessione, Mart Museum of Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto, Italy (2012), No Trace- Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome Italy (2010). In 2008 she has won the VII Biennale of Experimental Art in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Her work has been exhibited throughout Europe, Asia and America and has been acquired by numerous public and private Museums such as La Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, the Macro Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome and the Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia among others. Her work has been published and reviewed in Italian and international magazines, including Il Giornale dell’Arte, Artforum, Harper’s Magazine and Art in America.