Artistic biography

Teri Volini, biophilic artist

Painter, engraver, performer, land artist, body artist, social sculptor, poet, essayist, teacher and linguist, translator, “re-semanticiser”, bearer of memory, researcher, mytho-archaeologist, lecturer, blogger, reporter, eco tuner, designer and interior designer, curator and cultural organiser; president of the Delta Centre for Art and Culture in Potenza, of the Impresa di Pace in Potenza and Milan, and of the Casa delle Erbe in Potenza and Castelmezzano.

The search for a renewed harmony, the theoretical and practical commitment to contribute to a way of life respectful of all beings and of nature, lies at the heart of all my work.

If with painting I already honoured and magnified the beauty and generosity of Mother Earth, for more than twenty years – with works in Social Sculpture, Land Art and Public Art: performances, symbolic actions, research, essays, articles, printed books and ebooks, videos and installations – I have practised an art directly aimed at defending the planet.

As a land artist I wish to “make” works in which the search for harmony and balance with Mother Earth is fundamental – the harmony human beings seem to have forgotten, but to which, in their own interest, they will have to give great importance again.

Teri Volini interviewed by Simonetta Ronconi (in Italian).

Her path

She has exhibited her paintings since the 1980s – the magical suggestions of The Enchanted Mountain, inspired by her native land, Basilicata, and the Lucanian Little Dolomites – followed by other major cycles of works shown in more than 90 solo exhibitions in regional, national and international venues – including Zurich, Winterthur, Nice, New York, Arles-en-Provence, Canterbury… – with considerable critical and public acclaim, also taking part in many group shows and receiving publications, prizes and awards. She celebrates in woman the original feminine value, highlighting its sacredness, beauty and magic in exuberant creativity and in its shared cyclicity with Nature: both being bearers and nurturers of life.

Italian by birth, she likes to call herself a citizen of the world. A scholar of foreign cultures, languages and literatures, especially French, English, Spanish and German, she lived for long periods in France – in Grenoble, Lyon and Paris – where she attended courses in civilisation, art and theatre at the Sorbonne, and later graduated with a thesis on the theatre of Jean Anouilh. As a linguist she produced, among other things, an unpublished translation of Alessandro Manzoni’s Lettre à monsieur Chauvet, and she carries out studies in linguistic re-semanticisation: starting from words in order to bring about a change in reality.

A poet, she is the author of the collection Universi (160 pages), of the short poem Amanda, cronologia della passione, a diary in verse (184 pages), of a booklet of Small poems with calligrams and of a Homage to Pinkola Estés. Universi won first prize among published books at the 8th Universum Basilicata International Poetry Competition (May–June 2021).

Since the mid-1990s she has devoted herself to works that can contribute to a new relationship with Nature and with Humanity. Through different expressive languages – painting, sculpture, poetry, installations, performances, symbolic actions, video, as well as research, talks, articles, and meetings with young people and civil society – she fosters a new respect for the planet, no longer seen as an object to dominate and exploit, but as Mother Earth, generator and nurturer of all living beings.

In 2002 she began the study and practice of Mudras and the writing of Mandalas as a meditation on Oneness – the perception of being one with other beings and with the Universe. She promotes Participatory Art, in which the public is not merely a spectator but, together with the artist, a collaborator and co-protagonist. In tune with the philosophy of Joseph Beuys, she believes in an art extended to all the fundamental aspects of life: Social Sculpture, which permeates all her work.

A scholar of ancient civilisations and a mytho-archaeologist, she explores the archaic prehistoric period with a view to recovering and revaluing the Feminine and Nature, in line with the research of Marija Gimbutas, James Mellaart and Jeannine Davis-Kimball, and she studies and promotes the traditions of Basilicata.

Her paintings and graphic works are held in public and private collections. Those who have written about her include Cesare Vivaldi, Franco Solmi, Elio Mercuri, Yves Tarlet, Keith Corbett-Jones, Giorgio Galli, Gabriella Parca, Max Clamour, Odile Rio, Maïté Dubocquet, Lucio Tufano, Cinzia Zungolo, Pasquale Totaro-Ziella, Alberto Barra, Ezio Alberione, Maria Grazia Longhi, Manuela Stefani and Stanislao Nievo.

Hypertext artistic biography

Five volumes in digital form, freely available on Issuu (in Italian):

1. From The Enchanted Mountain to performances and installations – 404 pages
2. Making art at the beginning of the third millennium, up to 2009 – 416 pages
3. Art that creates structures in society, 2010–2014 – 434 pages
4. Resilient Art, 2015–2016 – 422 pages
5. Leaving deep footprints, 2017–2018 – 424 pages

See also the full curriculum and the critical dossier.