Elisa Bertaglia/Plateau project

Plateau Project is a large floor drawing relized in the medium cabin of the Colonia (Eng.: summer camp building) of the former Eni Village of Borca di Cadore. It represents a non-homogeneous “texture” of tiny falling little girls, curled up in the fetal position, each with a diameter of about 4 cm, twisted by grass snakes (or vipers) and only outlined by a faint silhouette of charcoal and black graphite, which mimetically intersects itself with the weave already characterized by the original linoleoum covering of the flooring. The drawing was realized maintaining unchanged the underlying layer of dust, which collected in the decades of abandon. The dust have made the supporting veining, originally yellow and purple, opaque and homogeneous, adapting them to various shades of grey. The artwork was not fixed: it was meant to be connected with bioogy and weariness of the place itself, it will consume and disappear progressively as people walk by (artists, curators, visitors, workers on the site,…). The project focuses on the literal and symbolic meaning of the title, Plateau. A “Plateau” is, effectively, a flat expense which is found at least 500 meters above sea level, is set in a mountainous area and is delimited by peaks and crests. Following this line of thought, the floor of the cabin becomes a conventional plateau: both for a formal linking with the structure of the site (the flooring is interpreted as an artificial leveling, in the steep slope where the Village is located); and for a symbolic juxtaposition as well. The flooring, sure enough, serves as a plateau placed over a level of decennal stratifications of memories, recollections, footprints, landscapes, fruictions, ideas, experiences and records, of all the people that have inhabited these spaces in the past. The plateau morphs from a physical to a metaphysical element: the function of the drawing is the one of highlighting such a plateau of meaning, stratifications and sedimentation, utilizing a language mimetic and revealing at the same time. Through the drawing one recalls the theme of the fall, of the landscape, of the change and the metamorphosis (particularly linked to a poetics which examines the passage from childhood to adulthood and the aspects linked to the world of children, recalling the past inhabitants of these spaces). The outlines of many, many little girls, call back to the originary function of this place (sure enough, the cabin was a space dedicated to playing and recreational moments for the children of the Colonia) and revolve around the very strong suggestions which that very space, thick and full of the images of the lives that have lived it, gives back to those walking through it.

Elisa Bertaglia

Plateau project
floor drawing, 10×10 m, charcoal and graphite on linoleum and dust, 2014