Y mirándome adentro descubrí que yo era la fuente de mi propia fuerza

Martina pozzi

© photo by martina pozzi

I believe that this Pandemic has changed the way we see things for many of us, or at least has certainly questioned and shaken some preconceptions.
An example is the position that certain companies took regarding home working: from denying themselves to being obliged to adopt it, they have discovered the many positive and productive faces of it. But my intervention wants to shed light on another reflection that had generated in me this experience.
My lockdown took place in a 38m2 studio apartment with my boyfriend, in Barcelona, away from my family and my native land, (to date 3/7/2020 I have not yet been able to return), in this situation where we had to rebuild the dynamics of daily life all in one space, Daniel and I had to invent two offices, two-sport, and recreation areas, all of which made it coexist with the basic functions of a home.
This difficult Tetris has put the couple's relationship under test but not only, it has put each of us in comparison with ourselves individually.
As if we were placed in front of a giant mirror in which only we could see ourselves and nobody else, we were forced to can look and rediscover our own "I" which (especially for who was only in quarantine) was who we had to deal with the most.
During and after this lockdown, talking more and more with friends, I was a witness (at a distance of course) of how many of my loving people have gone into crisis precisely because from one day to the next they suddenly had to slow down the work rhythm; they were forced to stop apply their “no stop running lives” and so they are found with so much free time, impossible to spend seeing, touching other people and so they hopelessly finding themselves alone to deal with themselves.
I realized that this happened because without their job or their sport they felt displaced as if in the absence of these things they had lost what defined them, they had lost their identity.
This feeling of bewilderment has affected both women and men without sexual distinction, it is the crisis of those who are not well with themselves, of those who always need someone else or something else to feel complete, happy, as if who we are really depended on from something external to us.
This is why after this experience I can answer to the question "who are strong men and strong women nowadays?" that for me it does not depend on the sex of the individual, it is not strong who has the most profitable job or who is more "bossy", who apparently owns everything.
I am convinced that the really strong people are those who during the isolation they did not fall apart.
Who was like reeds in the wind: they folded without ever breaking during this hurricane.
Thanks to this Pandemic I rearranged the scale of life values, I rediscovered the fundamental importance of being well mentally, physically, and spiritually. Keys that open the doors to personal happiness.
According to this reasoning, strong people are for me, those who possess great inner strength, great moral integrity, and a deep knowledge of one's "I".
People who for this reason, are self‐confident, are inclined to have happiness always with them, because if you know you well, you know what keeps you alive, what feeds you, for what or for whom you wake up every morning, who or what you need to do to retain happiness, to feel the satisfaction of being living a full life, in every little moment.
Strong people are those who are at peace with themselves, self‐confident, who must not prove anything to anyone, who is truly happy and at the same time have enough love and empathy to make those around them feel better.
I tried to be part of these strong people during these months of lockdown and only thanks to Art, to doing my manual collages, I managed to be strong, to be happy, full of hope and optimism for me and for all the people I love that had needed it.
The happiness of the soul, hope, optimism, mental health are the weapons of precious power, hidden inside each of us, to males and females alike, without any gender distinction.

martina pozzi

Architect and collagist

Martina Pozzi is an Italian Architect and Collagist.
She graduated in Architecture at the Polytechnic University of Milan in 2011.
She works as an architect for a couple of years in her country and then by chance and luck, she moves to Seville where she stays living and working as an Interior Designer for 5 years.
This city completely captivated her, she fell in love with its people, with the streets full of art, with the patios with orange trees, with the Spring Festival, with the flowers in her hair, the ruffles and the polka dots of the Seville costumes.
In 2018 Martina had to leave her beloved Seville and move to Barcelona.
Here the architectural projects she was following gave her less and less space to creativity and so she began to feel frustrated. She starts to feel that she has something inside that stirred her, something that wanted to find a way out through expression: it was her creative restlessness that she normally let off steam in interior design projects.
So, she starts to investigate the world of handmade paper collages and turns out that this technique is the best way for her, to vent and express herself.
Moved by a constant creative concern, Martina cuts and paste to give voice to her creativity and be happy, make collages it’s the only thing she make feels truly fulfilled.

ARTISTIC CURRICULUM

She forms her artistic taste by attending the Fine Arts “Preziosine Liceum” in Monza, Italy.
Her life as a collagist is very recent and self‐taught: she has only been making collages and establishing himself in this world since January 2018. She is a great observer, visits exhibitions and thanks to social networks she has contacted contemporary collagists from across the pond, with whom she exchanges advice, observations and points of view.
EXHIBITIONS

- Projects “Pleasure in a tin” in the “Dones transitant exhibition” at Centre Civic Barceloneta, Barcelona. March 2020.

- Projects “Mirada Pilot” at Centre Civic Matas i Ramis, Barcelona. November 2019.

- Projects “Monet & Brian Paterson illustrations” and “Chicas perdidas” at Espace Monet Rollinat, Fresselines, Francia. September

2019.

- Projects “La flor que llevo dentro” at MOB Caterina, Barcelona. August 2019.

- Projects “La flor que llevo dentro” at 24°edition of Stripart Festival in Guinardò, Barcelona. July 2019.

http://stripart.cat/festival/portfolio‐item/mp_collages/

- Collage “Amor en su medida” exposed at art fairy “MULAFEST 2018” in Madrid, with the collective “Mujeres que cortan y pegan”, “Miradas en femenino”. June 2018.

COLLABORATIONS

- Event “La fiestas de las letras” at Betahaus Barcelona organized by Whatsartcollective, she and the artist Anna Gabriella Herrera

paint together a mural and then she lend her body to body painter artist Claudia Sahuquillo who make a performance called

“skin it’s the new canvas”.

- Interpretation and manipulation using manual collages technique of 6 self‐portraits of the photographer and storyteller Anna

Rabasa. Work published on: https://www.anna3puntos.com/artists/fotografia‐collage‐martina‐pozzi/ PRESS

- Monthly Online Fanzine “ISSUE1” “ISSUE2” Editor FIKA.Fanzine, since March 2020 (ongoing).

- Fanzine monographic “Martina Pozzi Collages” Editor Vulva fanzine, February 2020.

- Especial Fanzine “Collages el proceso creativo” Editor Vulva fanzine, January 2020.

- Interview on Italian online magazine Osso Magazine. http://ossomagazine.com/filter/arte/ARTE‐I‐collage‐di‐Martina‐Pozzi‐

ritratti‐dell‐anima

- Interview on American online magazine Holagwapa. https://holagwapa.com/blogs/news/artist‐feature‐martina‐pozzi