About
BIOGRAPHY
Multi-media artist Paola Cassola began her career as a journalist and photo-reporter working for Vogue and other International news magazines around the world. Her numerous assignments led her to extensive travels, covering a variety of universal topics relating to beauty/identity, gender identity, politics, sustainability, poverty, wealth, health and culture to name a few. These experiences led to a deeper exploration and understanding of other cultures. Her earliest years were steeped in dance. She continued her love for movement, studying ballet, modern, jazz and contemporary rhythmic dance, which she learned during her travels. Her pursuit of dance continued until an accident caused her body extremely limited mobility in 2004. This pivotal moment required a drastic change in her life's course, leading her to consider other methods of expression such as acting roles in theatrical performances. Cassola saw this new art form as both a cathartic and spiritual experience and one to help her fully understand her own body-identity. In 2012 she embarked upon a series of performance works where she used photography to document her vulnerability and examine identity and intimacy. In 2014 at the Art Fair in Rio de Janeiro she introduced one of her most notable and courageous performance works which encouraged the public to fully commit to their own vulnerability, by participating with their eyes closed, as they were prompted to trust the artist and follow her lead. Cassola's practice continues to develop different forms of movement and technique that allow her to push the boundaries of the body. Her work aims to question how the physical form can move through space and time either as one entity or in tandem choreography with others.
Cassola was born in Milano, and has lived and worked in London, Madrid, Geneva, Santiago de Chile and Rio de Janeiro. The artist currently lives and works between Miami, US and Pietrasanta, Italy. In 2003 she held her first internationally recognized photography exhibition with the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2007, she became the first artist to travel from London to Ulanbataar (Mongolia), in 30 days, in a vintage Fiat 500 car.
ARTIST STATEMENT
I approach my artwork with a photojournalistic eye. I consider my art without borders and myself an explorer and researcher in constant pursuit of new frontiers. My art is more then objects reflecting any singular meaning. My works are more about ongoing investigations that are meant to be shared with the public, as one might share a profound reportage published for the masses. In 2004, while I was on a photo assignment in Tokyo, I was suddenly struck by a neurological condition that affected my physical mobility and subsequently impacted my ability to move.
I recovered by applying my newfound body awareness to drama, arts and photography and the process has triggered in me a new type of subjectivity: innocence and intimacy, always subject to challenges and revision. My art is driven by pushing the boundaries of the body; my own and its interaction with various material objects and members of the public as a measure and a tool of investigation and to express myself in a dialogue with the outside world. Through a multidiscipline practice of using my own body I have steadily learned to question, analyse and accept my physicality and deal with the limitations of chronic pain.
I am interested in non-traditional methods of creation employing materials such as industrial ropes as both active participant and aesthetic object. My performance works involve choreographed dances in tandem with this pliable material that serves as the symbol of the endless potential of freedom of movement.
My paintings, also featuring ropes, are made with ropes replacing traditional brushes, in a series of composed movements that are documented impressions directed onto the canvas in a meditative process resulting in abstract compositions of repetitive mark-making.
My work is about transforming my life experiences into a personal visual language that reveals hopes, humiliations, failures and successes in a candid and poetic, at times, strong and powerful way. I aim to produce art that is both dramatic and dreamful. I explore complex personal states and ideas of self-representation through expressionist styles and themes.
A full list of shows, exhibitions, projects, prizes and workshops can be found on the artist’s CV.
Works are held in private collections across Europe, United States and South America.