Grazia Toderi Italian, 1963

Grazia Toderi (Padua, Italy, 1963)

After studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, in 1992 Grazia Toderi moved to Milan. Since 2005, she has been living in Milan and Turin.

Grazia Toderi's came to the attention of critics at the Aperto '93 show on the occasion of the XLV Venice Biennale, where she exhibited several photographs and the video “Nontiscordardime”. The artist's predilection for the intentionally basic use of video as a means of expression emphasises her desire to focus on the subject and the action performed, moving away from a purely creative will.

Although showing everyday objects in domestic contexts, Grazia Toderi's works do not hide a sense of unease and her subjects often undergo a concealed violence. In 1995, she was invited to an exhibit at the Frac Languedoc-Roussillon in Montpellier where she became the protagonist of her own video. Breaking the pull of gravity, she let herself be filmed completely immersed in a swimming pool while attempting to accomplish ordinary actions such as walking or opening an umbrella. The slowness of her movements seemed to unfold following the rhythm of a breath which, through image, reveals all the fatigue of the hostile situation to which the body is subjected. The artist's everyday microcosm thus becomes the bearer of the sentiment of an entire generation – the one that grew up with the images broadcast by television.

The focus on the informative capacity of television and its communicative potential is also evident in other works, emphasising, once again, the unifying power, not only of television images, but also of of the show itself.

Toderi looks at this medium in all its positive meanings. Rather than considering it as a vehicle towards the standardisation of feelings, she grasps its unifying value and symbolic significance for an entire generation. She has taken part in numerous important group and solo shows in museums and exhibition spaces such as the Frac Bourgogne in Dijon, the Casino Luxembourg in Luxembourg and the Castello di Rivoli Contemporary Art Museum. 

Always fascinated by the dynamics of live performances as an opportunity to meet and unite, Toderi works on the image of stadiums, arenas and large historical theatres.

The stalls areas of various Italian theatres became an occasion to reflect on the relationship between the container and its content, the consumption and the consumer in a role play that ultimately made the audience the protagonist. Toderi also makes a series of videos inspired by Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities and guided by her view of the city as a mirroring of sky and earth. She recreates nocturnal visions of cities such as Rome, Florence and London, using aerial images to explore them from a completely different perspective. 

In addition to participating in numerous exhibitions, she delivered some other special projects that are worth mentioning. One of these is the scenic design for the “Il fiore delle 1001 notte” show, created in collaboration with Virgilio Sieni's Dance Company in 1998 – which won her the Golden Lion at the 1999 Venice Biennale. Another one is the installation of “Audience”, a work presented on the occasion of the opening of the National Cinema Museum in the Mole Antonelliana in Turin in 2000. In 2001 Grazia Toderi also received a scholarship from the Amici Sostenitori del Castello di Rivoli, thanks to which she spent a period of study in the United States. That experience led her to the creation of works focused on large American stadiums – Subway Series, 2001; Diamante, 2001; Super Tuesday, 2001 – and on the image of the United States seen from above – Empire, 2002. In 2004 she created the video “Semper eadem” to celebrate the reopening of the Teatro La Fenice in Venice, while in 2006 she held a solo exhibition at the P.A.C. in Milan. In 2009 she was invited to the Venice Biennale, as part of the exhibition Fare Mondi / Making Worlds. For the occasion, she created “Orbite Rosse”, a double video projection that shows two large ovals in which the lights of distant cities in continuous transformation appear inscribed. It is a tribute to both the planisphere –ancient tradition of terrestrial and celestial mapping – and to the orbits of our eyes – optical instruments that lead images to the world in our heads.

In 2010, the Serralves Museum in Porto inaugurated a major solo exhibition of her work, followed by one at the Hirschhorn Museum in Washington in 2011 and another one at the MAXXI in Rome in October 2012.

She now lives and works in Milan and Turin.

 Copyright the artist. Photo UniCredit Group