6 ½ Weeks – Ida Raselli

Ida Raselli (*1986) works with untreated, natural materials in the tradition of Environmental Art and Arte Povera. Her installation A Rush of Being, created especially for Museum Folkwang, consists of found objects from nature – branches, dried flowers, stones, bark and pieces of earth are intuitively arranged on the walls of the exhibition space. The transience of these found objects reveals the cyclical processes in nature and describes it as an ever-reproducing system. The wall surfaces are bathed in light earthy colours, some areas are more colourful than others. The paint is made from clay that Ida Raselli dug up and fired on the coasts and in the forests of Denmark. As a sculptor, she works in dialogue with the element without forcing forms. In A Rush of Being, even the smallest found object can be examined closely. This respectful treatment of the material metaphorically symbolises how man should treat nature. In this respect, Raselli also sees her artistic work as a process of learning. Dealing with the material helps her and the viewer to better understand nature and the cycles it contains.

Raselli also thematises the cyclical in the text Røde Sommer (Red Summer), written in 2022, which is an integral part of the installation and appears in the form of a publication accompanying the exhibition. It is an alternately prose, theoretical and lyrical essay that tells of menstruation, pregnancy and birth, as well as artistic practice and the challenges of our society.

Raselli's work has its origins in the hot summer of 2018, which she remembers as follows: "The drought scared me. I was really scared. It raised all kinds of questions about being human on a drying planet. A reproducing body. It felt futureless in a way. I started working quite intensely on some very large ceramic sculptures in conventional clay..."

Ida Raselli lives and works in Copenhagen.

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