SENZA DIFESE. LA STRADA A VENIRE
Francesca Bertazzoni
Until March 15th, 2025
A+B Gallery is pleased to host the exhibition Defenceless. The next road by Francesca Bertazzoni (Bologna, 1977), presented as part of the Special Gallery Prize awarded at Premio Combat 2023.
Her research takes shape from an intimate and deep-rooted connection with the street—an essential yet silent companion that serves as a space for listening, a trace of passages, and an evolving narrative. Walking, pausing, observing, collecting—every element of her work stems from the experience of the journey, the contact with matter, and the memory embedded in places. Bertazzoni embraced walking as an artistic practice in 2020, when movement restrictions turned the street into a territory of research and resistance. Since then, walking has become an expressive device, a trajectory from which signs, materials, encounters, and memories emerge.
Engaging in an exclusive dialogue with asphalt—a liminal and ever-changing space where the work takes shape—Bertazzoni walks against the flow, follows the road markings, absorbs their visual grammar, and translates them into a sculptural language. The white line becomes both guide and boundary, margin and protection, the directive of her movement.
Walking becomes a process of sedimentation, a collection of traces: materials such as bituminous membrane, cold asphalt, felt, spray paint, and gold layer into her works, forming a material archive that draws from the direct experience of the journey, as well as from objects and elements recovered from her past and family history.
Reviews: ArtsLife, Corriere Brescia, BresciaOggi
