Carolina Mazzolari, an acclaimed Italian textile and video artist, honours the legacy of women who ran public laundries in the project Alone Together. Collaborating with Royal Ballet dancer and choreographer Kristen McNally and Royal Opera House senior costume manager Ilaria Martello, Carolina connects viewers to the invisible world of domestic labour through stunning video projections and tapestries on Venice's streets and in the Domus Civica Gallery, San Polo.

Growing up as the youngest daughter of a Milanese perfumer, Carolina's art is deeply influenced by the magic of illusion and connection, to make her artwork a sensory experience.

I met Carolina through Alfio Puglisi, co-producer of Art Destinations and director of the Sicily Art Residency Program, who helped bring this extraordinary exhibition, Alone Together, to Venice, in July last year.

In this episode we cover:

• how Alone Together uses dance, video and tapestry to share the story of the women who worked in public laundries in Venice’s rivulets, and in canals across Italy,

• the video was projected onto sheets hanging in the streets of Venice, outside, as well as inside the Domus Civica Gallery, San Polo, Venice,

• themes of collaboration and womanhood emphasise the collective power and energy generated when women work together,

• the historical significance of washerwomen in Italy and their communal labour,

• Carolina’s artistic journey from working in factories as a fashion designer to becoming an artist working with tapestry, embroidery, video, dance, and site-specific installations, and

• Carolina’s personal influences growing up surrounded by women and being inspired by their stories and strength, and the influence of her father's work as a perfumer on her appreciation for illusion and sensory experiences in art.

BIOGRAPHY

Carolina Mazzolari (b. 1981 Milan/London) uses psychoanalysis and intuition to reveal emotional experience. Her artistic practice spans textiles, printing, painting, photography, video, and performance. Carolina’s hand-embroidery and painted maps are characterised by distinctive silver-grey stitchwork that interacts with light, creating shifting depths and luminous illusions.

Each map exudes an intimate quality, as the artist has spent countless hours physically interacting with the fabrics. The resulting maps resemble mandalas, conveying love, hesitation, awe, and struggle through a personal language, alluding to deeper human motifs.

Carolina collaborates with 'Fine Cell Work,' a UK-based registered charity that employs and rehabilitates long-sentenced inmates through embroidery, to create the largest hand-sewn works.

Carolina's video and textile work are part of the permanent collection at MONA Museum in Tasmania, Australia, and have been featured in significant exhibitions. Carolina was born in Milan, Italy and currently lives with her family in London.