FIL DU MONDE

Year: 2018

Place: Fondazione Filatoio Rosso, Caraglio, Italy

Curators: Paola Stroppiana, Elena Inchingolo

Works:
Gli Ulivi
Red Net
Mundo
Libro d'architetto
Los Otros
Filo Spinato
Wing of silk
All the fires, The Fire

The exhibition Le fil du monde: Migrations and Identities in the Work of Elizabeth Aro, held in the ancient halls of the Filatoio di Caraglio, connects Caraglio to Barcelonnette, a route taken by Piedmontese emigrants traveling to France between approximately 1870 and 1950. Elizabeth Aro, born in Buenos Aires and later moving to Madrid and then Milan, where she currently resides, has always been sensitive to the theme of "the other," viewed through the lens of someone who personally belongs to two different cultures and has experienced both physical and cultural "migration."
Through contemporary language—demonstrated in her work focused on weaving, which resonates deeply with the tradition of the Filatoio—Aro approaches the central theme of the project with both delicacy and incisiveness: the migration of peoples and its complexities, encompassing both the recovery of memory and the interpretation of new challenges in the present. Art, as an interpreter of its time, serves here as a metaphor and expressive code: Elizabeth Aro engages with various media, particularly favoring fabric sculpture that she personally stitches, molds, and embroiders.
Weaving, akin to photography, carries a non-verbal language of remarkable expressive power, even ritualistic in nature. Through this medium, the artist invites viewers to reflect on the complexities of humanity—individuals as social beings—filled with emotions, desires, identities, and differences that are tangibly expressed in her art. Elizabeth's hope—and a wish for all of us—is to continually shift our gaze and perspective for a present that is aware of its past. This awareness is an essential tool for confronting the future and the daily challenges it presents with urgent clarity.