Floriana
Celani
Born in Rome, where she completed her secondary education at an arts-focused school, she later obtained a Diploma in Sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Frosinone.
In 1984, she was invited by Prof. Pico Cellini to work in his renowned restoration studio/workshop, where for several years she was responsible for the restoration and enhancement of important ancient artworks, earning the respect of prestigious Italian and international clients.
She has worked in the creative field of sculpture, engaging in exhibitions and research into an experimental language.
From 1995 to 1997, she collaborated with the Accademia d’Europa in the staging of numerous art exhibitions, including those dedicated to Mario Schifano, Umberto Mastroianni, Tano Festa, Franco Angeli, Lamberto Pignotti, Man Ray and Joseph Beuys.
Since 1997, she has undertaken an intensive research journey that has brought her closer to Eastern and Western spirituality and philosophies, whose symbolism she draws upon in her search for a universal language that posits the function of art as an evolutionary project of the being, aimed at rediscovering a new vital and creative energy.
Since 1996, she has been a Lecturer in Artistic Anatomy, initially at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brera, and currently teaches Artistic Anatomy, Semiology of the Body and Drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome.
The Artistic Anatomy course aims to analyse the body through observation, with the goal of gaining objective knowledge of the human being. Understanding of form will be developed through the study of osteology, arthrology, myology and external morphology, both in the static and dynamic aspects of the body, with a particular focus on the study of movement as a dynamic, expressive and character-based aspect of non-verbal and proxemic communication, in order to enable students to produce accurate visual representations and to develop critical interpretation skills by comparing the expressive meanings exemplified in the history of art. Students will thus be able to use the knowledge acquired during the course to develop their own artistic needs, also exploring, on an individual basis, the symbolic and psychosomatic meaning of body language, with a particular focus on deciphering the iconographic material presented in the art examples.
THREE-YEAR COURSE: The course offers a three-year training programme divided into a theoretical part and a workshop-based part.
1st year: Origin and evolution – Upright posture – Sexual dimorphism – Osteology – Arthrology – Canons and proportions.
2nd year: General muscle morphology – Musculature as a sculptural, static and dynamic factor – External morphology – Changes in the representation of the body over the centuries.
3rd year: Study of the human form – Representation of the human form through the centuries – Individual research project on the meaning of representations of the human body in 20th-century art and in contemporary artistic portraiture.
READING LIST
A. Morelli, Anatomia per gli artisti, Fratelli Lega editore, Faenza 1943.
A. Lolli, M. Zocchetta, R. Peretti, Struttura Uomo, Neri Pozza, Vicenza, 1998.
U. Galimberti, Il Corpo, Feltrinelli, Milan 2013.
A. Lowen, Il linguaggio del corpo, Feltrinelli, Milan 2013 (1978).
A research project will be undertaken on the meaning of the representation or presentation of the body in 20th-century art, through an analysis of various artistic movements: Dadaism, Surrealism, Nouveau Réalisme, Fluxus, Happening, Performance and Body Art. The knowledge thus gained can then be used to reinterpret the value attributed to the body image during the historical period under analysis, extending to the most recent trends in the comprehensive – and even gruesome – manipulation of the human body in contemporary artistic experimentation. Further reflections will address the new epistemological field of proxemics and holographic alienation, or the 3D representation of the body, as outcomes of today’s most advanced cybernetic technology. Furthermore, a significant portion of the planned in-depth study will focus on the interplay between social values and the physical reality of imperfections or excesses, thereby highlighting that contemporary aesthetic overvaluation is closely linked to unjust policies of consumerist waste or profligacy and to the ideological failure that underlies the managerial shortcomings at the root of human misery and the manipulation or destruction of the human body.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
T. Macrì, Il corpo postorganico – sconfinamenti della performance, Costa & Nolan.
L. Vergine, Dall’informale alla Body Art, Gruppo editoriale Forma.
For the two-year academic course, recommended reading lists will be provided by the individual lecturer.
The programme aims to analyse and explain the meaning of the sign and the various themes of drawing by examining graphic practice in the modern era, with a particular focus on the artistic output and historiographical analysis of some of the most significant contemporary artists, such as Vedova, Hartung, Masson, Scanavino and Tombly, as well as renowned 20th-century masters like Picasso, Dalí and De Chirico. Through a programme of theoretical and practical workshop experimentation, the course aims to develop a mature technical understanding of drawing, whether as a means of artistic expression, illustration, or technical design reproduction.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Parma, IL DISEGNO, in Tecniche artistiche, edited by Corrado Maltese, Milan, 1978.
G. Romano, DISEGNO, in Enciclopedia Feltrinelli-Fischer, Arte, Milan 1984.
G. Fiore, I MODELLI DI DISEGNO NELLA BOTTEGA DEL RINASCIMENTO, Milan 1984.
C. Eisler, LA MANO E IL SEGNO, Milan 1986.
S. Macchioni, IL DISEGNO NELL’ARTE ITALIANA, Florence, 1975.
F. Negri Arnoldi and S. Prosperi Valenti, IL DISEGNO NELLA STORIA DELL’ARTE ITALIANA, Rome 1986.
A. Petroli Tofani, S. Prosperi Valenti, G.C. Sciolla, IL DISEGNO: FORME, TECNICHE, SIGNIFICATI, Turin 1991.
F. Russo, IL NOVECENTO (I disegni dei grandi maestri), Milan 1971.
R. Barthes, L’IMPERO DEI SEGNI, Turin 1980.
This academic course focuses on the composite study of the human body, examining the multiple expressive and symbolic potentials inherent in its non-verbal language.
In an individual’s social behaviour, bodily messages that draw on the anthropologically ‘proxemic’ value, which is inescapable in any exploration of human spatiality, and on the variations in relationships within social and private spaces in contemporary everyday life, take on particular significance. Here, in fact, we project as models both a vulnerable or embarrassing anatomical body and a sophisticated, formalist cultural body, both of which seek to explore space and distance within the theatrical context of our lived experience. Through the language of gestures, it is possible to uncover a psychology of ‘subjective identity’ that has been nurtured and developed in the diverse soils of interdisciplinary and intercultural contextual experiences, explored as a space for emotional or intellectual encounter.
Both subject and means of expression, the human body – with its self, a synthesis of visceral body and intuitive mind – is our fluid system of connection with the world, and the senses themselves are the channels of communication beyond the barriers of the epidermis.
The course of study examines the reflective and creative expressions enabled by the power of body language, as well as the social connotations associated with bodily realities, whether deficient or excessive, without neglecting either the socialising organisation – given that, for a long time, the body has been linked to ideological passions and educational pathways – or reflection on the advanced technologies that are increasingly influencing our behaviour and our perception of others.
A key section of the course will focus on contemporary overvaluations, which are closely linked to the inequitable policies of waste and to the ideological failures caused by the managerial shortcomings that underlie the bodily misery and destruction of globalised humankind.
The knowledge thus acquired can then be used to re-examine the values attributed to the body image throughout the most significant periods of art history, culminating in the ironic postmodern reversals and the striking contemporary manipulations of the human body, which are reminiscent of the theory of reversibility, whereby the world and the flesh are no longer separate entities but part of a single fabric that enables them to unite through both intermingling and merging.
We are thus witnessing a greater social visibility of belonging, brought about by the widespread adoption of tattoos and piercings in defiance of prudish and restrictive social codes, and at the same time, we are observers of the fluid currents of more recent artistic experimentation, where the manipulated body is an active presence in contemporary Video Art, happenings, performances, art installations, Punk Vanguard, Body Art and Bio Art.
CORE BIBLIOGRAPHY
Michael ARGYLE, Body Language: A Study of Non-Verbal Communication, Studio sulla comunicazione non verbale, Bologna, Zanichelli, 1976; 1993, second edition.
Alexander LOWEN, Il linguaggio del corpo, Milan, Feltrinelli, 1978.
James BORG, Il linguaggio del corpo: Guida all’interpretazione del linguaggio non verbale, Milan, Tecniche Nuove, 2009. O. Michael WATSON, Il comportamento prossemico, Milan, Bompiani, 1969.
Silvia BONINO, Gianfranco SAGLIONE, Ada FONZI, Tra noi e gli altri. Studio psicologico della distanza personale, Florence, Giunti-Barbèra, 1982. Studio psicologico della distanza personale, Florence, Giunti-Barbèra, 1982.
Erving GOFFMAN, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, New York, Doubleday, 1959.
Edward T. HALL, Il linguaggio silenzioso, Milan, Bompiani, 1969; 1972.
Umberto GALIMBERTI, Il corpo, Milan, Feltrinelli, 2003. Mariella PANDOLFI, Perché il corpo: utopia, sofferenza, desiderio, Rome, Meltemi, 1996.
Avatar no. 4 Corpo, edited by Massimo Canevacci, Rome, Meltemi, 2003.
Sally O’REILLY, The Body in Contemporary Art, London, Thames & Hudson, 2009.
Stephen WILSON, Art + Science Now: How scientific research and technological innovation are becoming key in 21st-century aesthetics, London, Thames & Hudson, 2010;
2012 reprint.
William MYERS, Bio Art: Altered Realities, London, Thames & Hudson, 2015.