A renowned artist, who brings imaginative creatures to life with her hands and textiles, exhibits her most recent work at Palazzo Mocenigo in Venice. Let’s discover together the fruits of the collaboration between Carla Tolomeo and Tessitura Bevilacqua.
The Tree of Life by Carla Tolomeo
“The Tree of Life” is an extraordinary work of art, a tribute to Venetian textile art, with its components entirely covered in fine fabrics.
Made of iron, wood, and fabric, the installation takes the form of a tree whose height is equal to its width and whose dimensions vary according to its location. The iron and wood supporting structure ensures the stability of the installation, which must be anchored to the ground using a platform base structure.
The massive Tree of Life is made up of eight hundred pieces, each living independently, but in harmony with each successive part of the tree. Each leaf is different from the next; fruits hang from the branches, turtles climb, parrots perch, tropical flowers bloom, and snakes hide; fish dart between the roots. All the elements are handmade by Carla Tolomeo, using fabrics, trimmings, silks and cotton, lampas, and brocades, that belong to the great tradition of Venetian textile craftsmanship.
The Tree of Life, Drafts by Carla Tolomeo – Image Gallery
Artist and designer Carla Tolomeo is an international artist who splits her time between Milan, Buenos Aires, and Paris. She has worked for Hermès in Paris and created sculptures for the Hotel le Meurice. Her works can be found in museums and private collections. Tolomeo is known for her versatility in using different materials such as resin, sequins, velvet, bronze, and marble. Her increasingly bold and daring creations evolve from chairs to sculptures, expressing an original and unusual artistic manner.
Fantastic Creatures Come to Life in Bevilacqua Fabrics
In The Tree of Life, Carla Tolomeo interprets transformation as a primary action, an invention of what exists, a process that overturns the obviousness of completed cycles and promises a glorious eternity to the residue. This concept is reflected in her artwork, where salvaged objects and recycled materials are transformed with respect for sustainability, following instinct and imagination.
This sense of renewal and continuity in time and space is also reflected in the choice of fabrics that Carla Tolomeo uses to create her works. Velvets of the highest quality, in a variety of cuts, regain their innate splendor after a metamorphosis that transforms them into fantastic creatures thanks to the artist’s hands.
Multicolored velvets, velvets with warm and vibrant hues, with unpredictable reflections when kissed by light, participate in the creation of this wonderful composition.
Fantastic Animals in Venetian Fabrics by Carla Tolomeo – Image Gallery
Sources of Inspiration for Carla Tolomeo’s Work
The Tree of Life created by Carla Tolomeo is a work that draws inspiration from a variety of sources, with a conceptual basis that runs through Jorge Luis Borges’ Zoologia Fantastica and universal cosmogonies. Borges, a key figure in the artist’s life and inspiration, creates a world of strange and fantastic creatures, a literary museum that mixes reality and mythology. Magical descriptions of almost real creatures give life to an authentic and richly evocative universe.
Universal cosmogonies, dealing with the origin of the universe and its evolution, have influenced the artist’s vision in terms of transformation and richness of expressive forms. The vertical origin, emerging from the water and reaching towards the sky, reflects a cycle of life and renewal, symbolized by the figure of Bahamuth, a colossal fish from Arabic mythology.
The Tree of Life thus becomes the summa of the artist’s creative journey, a work in fieri that grows, lives and dies like a tree. Its roots are rooted in Borges’ profound knowledge of cosmogonies and fantastic creatures, while its branches extend into the infinity of creative possibilities, nourished by the poetic and philosophical vision that has guided his life and work.
A unique work of art, The Tree of Life is a tribute to Venetian textile art production and an example of how art can unite disparate materials in visual and tactile harmony, creating a visual experience that is as fascinating as it is engaging.
The Tree of Life at Palazzo Mocenigo: Between Tradition and Contemporary Art
Carla Tolomeo’s Tree of Life installation is on display at the Museum of Palazzo Mocenigo – Centro Studi di Storia del Tessuto, del Costume e del Profumo in Venice from May 25 to November 24, 2024, testifying to the marriage of Venetian textile tradition and contemporary art in the 21st century.
The event is curated by Clara Santini and Chiara Squarcina, under the patronage of Fondazione Cavour and Associazione Dino Ferrari. Fabrics by Bevilacqua, among other companies.
