TATIP Anthology

May 18, 2017

Valentina Medda, Visual Artist

Valentina Medda is an artist, organizer, activist and educator who has long been part of the political Italian underground/DIY/squatting scene and who is currently part of the co-housing movement in NYC. She was born in Sardinia – IT, but she lived in several cities, 4 countries and 2 continents. She holds an MA in Philosophy from University of Bologna – Alma Mater Studiorum, a Certificate Degree in Photography from ICP – International Center of Photography – NY, and she will soon graduate from Community-Word Project’s TATIP.

In the last years she has been Artist in Residence at Maison Ventidue – Bologna – IT at Flux Factory-Queens, NY; OPEN CARE/FARE – Milan; Centre international d’accueil aux Récollets – Paris, Cité des Arts -Paris; Le bains:connective – Brussels. She received the IAP Mentorship from NYFA – New York Foundation for Arts; the Master and Back’s Fellowship from Regione Sardegna, the Movin Up Award from the Italian Government and the Kodak Color Elite Prize. Most recently she won the TINA ART Prize and she was shortlisted for the Queen Museum Studio Museum Program Queens, NY.

Among her latest solo shows: home is a sick body – Maison Ventidue, Bologna – IT; Amsterdam by Night – Beeldend Gesproken Gallery, Amsterdam – NL; Inside the stairs at the edges of my body – Site Specific Intervention + Installation and Art Salon/Reading, Flux Factory NYC, 2015; Il tuo Volto Domani, Urban Art Project – Public Art Intervention + Artist Walk, Milano, 2014; La présence – Old Postcards Manipulation, Centre International d’Accueil et d’Echange aux Récollets, Parigi, 2013; The remains of the day – Instax Films, Performative Project, SMELL Festival, Museo della Musica, Bologna, 2012.

Recent articles about her work appeared, among others, in Dude Magazine, Juliet Art Magazine, Copypastecutlure, Arte e Forma, Corriere della sera, Emergency Index. Her essays and writings were published in the academic publications Arte e Psicologia – Psico Art Magazine, University of Bologna; and IAPh -Italian Association of Women philosopher. Among her curatorial projects : Architecture and desire –Art Salon, with Steven Polk, Will Owen, Kate Sclavi, Wieteke Heldens, Flux Factory, NY; Marginalia: On the Edges of Art, Money & Access Brunch + Art salon, Flux Factory – NYC, With Gabrielle Mertz, Michi Jigarjian and Qiana Mestrich. In Cantiere#1 and #2, Potluck/Art Salon, Bologna, IT, with Eva Geatti, Nicola Toffolini, Sabrina Mezzaqui, Carlo Steiner.

Currently, Valentina is working on a Bologna iteration of her “Cities by Night” project, which will be shown during the Urban Dance Festival in September– she’s collaborating with htE association on her educational workshop “if there’s no room for me I’ll make one” and she’s preparing for her residency at TOZ Gallery , in Istanbul, taking place later this summer.

TATIP Work:

“I attended the TATIP New & Beginning track, doing my training with two amazing teaching artists Jay Howard and Alex Velozo. Their lessons were brilliantly scaffolded, and their two main disciplines were beautifully intertwined, resulting in inspiring, creative and fun classes.”

“Before finishing my internship I interviewed for Marquis Studio, where I got a job as assistant in few different classes ranging from visual art to creative moment. Beside my work at Marquis, I have been volunteering and facilitating workshops for adult women at htE: Here, There and Everywhere, an organization that offers art education program to victim of abuse – and later this fall I will start working as teaching artist at a private daycare for 1st generation children of Italian parents. As an artist working with different media, during my class I like to both teach performance-based activities as well visual arts techniques – map making, collage, photography.”