Segni sul volto: The Mask And The Face. Multiple Identities. Speech By Maria Laura La Mantia

Ho comprato una maschera di cera,
che un volto finge di donna gentil,    
una parrucca che par chioma vera,   
e velo nero d ‘ordito sottil.
/ Luigi Pirandello

The face prepares the other to identify us by expressing power, seduction, art, war, protection, fashion in various ways. The elements that adorn the face therefore relate to mimicry, which is by nature a non-verbal communication. The face and its modifications thus become an interesting point of observation for presenting the historical and multicultural weave, in which past and present, distant and complex geographical and cultural areas find a global contemporary synthesis. The signs of time on the face or wanting to erase them, modifications, grafts, prostheses, makeup and permanent marks are some of the themes in evidence. Jewellery is present in this scenario, crossing the different identities and confirming its strong attitude to testify and adapt its nature of ornament with that of symbol of its time. We live in a hyperconnected reality, a theatrical time where the image can be an indelible virtual sign, I think of the photo in Vogue.it and the blurb accompanying Helen Mirren, Andie MacDowell and Jodie Foster at Cannes 2021. The three actresses, portrayed on the red carpet, are not mentioned in that case to talk about their films, but to talk about their wrinkles, exhibited and not retouched, their grey hair shown as a sort of new aesthetic manifesto, this too, according to them, a consequence of the time we are living in. It may be interesting to observe how the female figure is using aesthetics in recent times as a re-appropriation, I am thinking of body positivity, or perhaps we are looking at an evolution from gray power to no botox? These hints of a different aesthetic, which are perhaps transitory signs in the multiplicity of the other forms I will be talking about, are however effective evidence of something that is still happening, in which the face is the protagonist and which is worth paying attention to for the future.
/ Maria Laura La Mantia, July 2021

About Segni sul volto
Segni sul volto (Signs over the face), a seminar/workshop conceived by Carla Riccoboni in collaboration with Le Arti Orafe, will open with a series of lectures transmitted on an online platform, conducted by professionals from various fields of expertise, focusing on the theme of the project or on the relationship between sign and identity, analysed from a variety of perspectives. The appointments, concentrated in the month of October, will be an opportunity to retrace and investigate the expressive and symbolic meanings of facial decoration throughout history and in the present day in different geographical contexts, and to discover the horizons that are emerging for the future with the advent of new technologies.

About Maria Laura La Mantia
Maria Laura La Mantia, jewellery history teacher, enameller, jewellery designer and restorer. She has been involved in training since 2001 for the teachings of History of Jewellery and Applied Decorative Techniques at various Institutes in the field. Since 2018 she has been teaching at Le Arti Orafe Jewellery School for a course on Jewellery Culture, a multidisciplinary theoretical study applied to design.
She has collaborated with companies in the sector to design collections, trade fair designs, retail and merchandising for jewellery.


The seminar/workshop will be in Italian.
Free participation upon registration/selection.
The seminar meetings will be transmitted on online platform and coordinated by Carla Riccoboni and Alice Rendon.

Registration: info@artiorafe.it; Information: alice@artiorafe.it

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