ARTIST STATEMENT
Emma Scarafiotti’s artistic practice involves experimenting with various media, ranging from film to photography, sound, and performance. These different forms of expression allow her to convey the same concept across multiple dimensions, offering diverse interpretations.
The focus of her research explores the interconnection between the human and the non-human. Her research begins with the body as a site of perception and experience, through which she explores interspecies entanglements, weaving connections between human and non-human communities—animals, plants, and other living beings—while questioning the boundaries of gender and species. Her practice has mainly involved the collaboration with dancers as her stories often need to be told through the intimate and intricated language of bodies.
She seeks to bridge the gap between human society and the natural environment, emphasizing their intrinsic mutual aid.
She is interested in narrating stories that lie at the margins; therefore, her subjects are mainly outsiders or creatures that are not yet identified, inhabiting a liminal space. Recurring themes in her practice have focused on gender discrimination, femininity, mental health, and interspecies studies.
When approaching the medium of film, she explores a visual language that often originates from documentary and cinéma vérité traditions, gradually blending into fictional and reimagined narratives.
A central thread in her work is hybridization, reflected in both content and technique. She frequently combines analog methods with cutting-edge technology, alternating between the organic and the virtual, aiming to push the boundaries of the medium and extend the physical limits of our existence into new dimensions.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Emma Scarafiotti (born 1996) is an Italian mixed media artist whose practice spans the intersection of film, installation, and performance. Initially a photographer and performer, she later found in audiovisual art her most complete form of expression. After graduating with Honors in Design & Art Direction at the London College of Communication, she obtained a Master’s degree in New Technologies for the Visual Arts.
Her work delves into themes of gender, feminism, and the evolving relationship between the human and the non-human, exploring intersections across species. She is interested in creating stories that layer a documentary scientific approach with a more fictional theatrical narrative, often marrying analog tools with new technologies. Her subjects are mainly “outsiders”—disenchanted individuals who inhabit the marginal side of society.
Her works have been exhibited at Careof Milano, REA Fair, Recontemporary Foundation in Torino, Bologna Art Fair, and Olimpia Biennale Langhe, as well as international foundations and museums in the USA, China, and South Africa. Her short films have been selected for national and international experimental video festivals, including PANORAMICA23 (Visual Container), Thunderdance Film Festival UK, Cinedans Amsterdam, Aesthetica Prize UK, Video Art and Experimental Film Festival New York, and many others.
© Emma Scarafiotti