By Irene Bernardi
“Mother-of-pearl” is one of the most precious and rare types of pearls.
The Italian writer and poet Franco Buffoni crafted a unique poem to tell the story of how a grain of sand becomes this incredible and luminous pearl:
[…]
If you photograph the sand and then magnify it
To three hundred times
Each grain reveals itself as unique:
One looks like Saturn without rings,
Another is Venus, then Mars with colors,
Jupiter that stays under the fingernail
And Uranus that falls
Into the right oyster
And makes it cry
Becomes in a hundred years
Mother’s pearl.[1]
Into the poetic and scientific imagination of the Italian writer, a small and insignificant grain of sand — after a long journey through the planets of our solar system — accidentally slips inside an oyster. This lucky encounter will produce a small but precious pearl that “[…] becomes, in a hundred years, Mother’s pearl.” Anatomy of an Oyster — the solo show by Catalan artist Rita Puig-Serra — is a journey inside the artist’s consciousness that, through the metaphor of analyzing an oyster, tells the story of her personal experience with family abuse.
Courtesy of PhMuseum and the artist.
Walking inside the small space of PhMuseum Lab in Bologna, are some of the photographs realized by the artist creating a sort of labyrinth, recreating an old installation made by the Italo-Brasilian architect Lina Bo Bardi for the Museum of Art in Sāo Paulo in 1970[2].
The artworks of Puig-Serra as the design of Bo Bardi are placed in clear glass panels, attached to concrete blocks: the exhibition’s layout fades, letting the visitor choose the order in which to see the works. The concrete blocks are as heavy as the words that the artist wants to tell to an absent mother during her childhood. That small insidious grain slowly takes shape and grows, pressing inside the oyster, much like the artist’s thoughts, words, and desires, which, as she grows, can no longer ignore the pearl of fears that have been with her since childhood.
Courtesy of PhMuseum and the artist.
Courtesy of PhMuseum and the artist.
Emerging from the labyrinth, a series of photographs are lined on the wall. Some depict the lengthy process of extracting mother-of-pearl, while others showcase the artist’s childhood from her archive, complete with phrases and memories. This is the journey of Puig-Serra inside the process to extract her deep memory of the abuses.
“The oyster will produce layers of nacre around the nucleus.”
This delicate narrative unfolds like a puzzle of memories: analog photographs from her childhood are interwoven with descriptions of the anatomy of an oyster and memories. The ghosts of her family are both visible and hidden within this narrative, such as old photos in which the artist shows some details of the person who abused her. Isolated on one side of the exhibition space is a letter recreated by the artist, written to her best friend, and then burned in a park. Injustices, abuses, and silences experienced are kept inside a small oyster on the sea floor for years when finally the mother-of-pearl sees the light of truth.
Courtesy of PhMuseum and the artist.
How small and insignificant can a grain of sand be compared to a planet? What are the chances that this grain can transform into mother-of-pearl? Anatomy of an Oyster gathers all these seemingly insignificant childhood events of Rita Puig-Serra to explore pain and abuse. It’s a self-analysis that takes shape in the anatomy of an oyster, which is studied, analyzed, photographed, and assimilated, only to be removed—just like the memories of the Catalan artist.
Rita Puig-Serra (Spain, 1985) is a photographer living in Barcelona. After a humanistic education and a Master’s degree in comparative literature, she studied graphic design and photography.
The project Anatomy of an Oyster was released by Witty Books in 2023. The exhibition is part of PhMuseum International Photo Festival place from 12 to 15 September 2024 in Bologna, Italy.
The PhMuseum Lab will be open 4pm-7pm during the Festival days in Via Paolo Fabbri 10/2a.
For more information about PhMuseum International Photo Festival, visit their website and Instagram.
For more information about Rita Puig-Serra and her exhibition, visit her website and Instagram.
[1] trad. from Franco Buffoni, Betelgeuse e altre poesie scientifiche, 2021, Mondadori, Milano
[2] Moffit E., How Lina Bo Bardi Built An Art World Without Walls, 14/04/2020, www.frieze.com