Mutabilis

graphic works of Elena Molena

Movable Blocks, etching, aquatint, softground ethcing, stitching, press with 10 matrices, 67.5x67.5 cm, 2023 (part.)

Movable Blocks, etching, aquatint, softground ethcing, stitching, press with 10 matrices, 67.5x67.5 cm, 2023 (part.)


Alea presents the personal exhibition of Elena Molena, engraver artist and teacher of engraving techniques at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice.

With “Mutabilis” she begins a journey to rediscover her own identity, especially for us children of an era in continuous, very fast mutation, hence the title of the exhibition. In fact, in her works the variety of techniques used (etching, aquatint, soft wax, sugar manner) translates into a refined complexity of landscapes that follow one after the other. The composition of the image is often made with pieces of paper carefully stitched together, like a large mirrored screen made up of different images. This variety of expressions and the mastery of engraving techniques give Molena's work an expressive ability that leads her to be considered among the best Italian engravers. In the Crisalide series, for example, particular attention is given to the so-called “body shaming”, the act of mocking and/or discriminating against a person for their physical appearance.

For several years Elena Molena's poetics has focused on the metamorphoses of the landscape, both urban and lagoon. In her works the artist investigates and experiments through the sign and the material, using engraving techniques as a privileged alphabet. Her language thus takes on a symbolic meaning in the perception of the continuous change of the environment and human identity, especially in the relationship with others.