Veronesi is a multi-media artist who worked extensively on the themes of space and landscape. She uses collage, video, drawing, and textile art. Her practice is in Venice since 2003, and has since shown her art in galleries in town and around the world.

Design and staging.
The large tapestry installed in the portico is a combination of images and words, a composition that touches both the figurative and the abstract. Amazonian medicinal plants emerge from the woods, as do parts of female bodies, long-forgotten plant silhouettes, indigenous plant names, names of human organs related to the functions of plants, name of extinction-threatened indigenous peoples, and name of female botanists. In places, the words grow unintelligible and merges with the background, though behind the figures, it may show up again in its full meaning. The tapestry is a sort of manifesto that shows the risk of a catastrophic loss, with humanity being the cause of it and, possibly, a cure.
The Museum’s inner court, instead, has been turned into a place for research on materials I collected in London, Trondheim, and Zurich and then elaborated. They explode in physical space and allow visitors to enter a dimension that is narrational and visual at once. The room houses a small archive of eighteenth-to-twentieth-century female botanists’ biographies and the complete list of plants, and the medicinal use thereof, that we used in our project.
In September, a video will be screened in the project room: archive footage, images of the botanical gardens in London and Zurich, and stop-motion and collage videos. This will be a visionary journey into the scientific discoveries made by these botanists.

Working with words.
In my most recent projects, I started working more and more with words, using them as building block of the artwork. Words, letters, sentences enter the art not only with their meaning, but as formal and decorative elements of the composition. I once read of a study by Jordi Bascompte and Rodrigo Cámara Leret that shocked and intrigued me, though above all, allowed me to add to my art language and botany, a theme that I had used once before and was eager to work on again.
From this point, I worked on my project on several levels, references botanists and the life and work of Hannah Ryggen, which I had been studying for a while.

Forgotten women.
#MeToo is something that allows women to feel less alone. It makes them feel part of a group, it protects them. For too long, certain behaviours were considered normal. Challenging this was faced with unbelievable revolt, much beyond expectations. What shocked me is that there have been completely opposing reactions. On one side, an élite feminist movement headed by stars and famous actresses, one the other, women that were just as famous who denounced the risk of unjustified manhunt. I think there are reasons to be heard on both sides. Also, this has been a chance to think about our experiences not only as isolated incidents, but within a system. Statistics paint a very clear picture: few women are museum curators, few are well-paid managers, and female artists’ art sells for less at auctions. It is true that in the last several Venice Art Biennale shows, many women have been awarded the Golden Lion, but as a percentage, female representation pales viz. male artists. And I don’t really think this is because of the quality of their work…
I think the issue lies somewhere else. I want to talk about respect first: respect for the person, and for profession. Times changed. Female artists who were active in the 1970s told me how isolated they felt in a man’s world. It’s different today, also thanks to militant critics (I’m thinking of Lea Vergine, who passed only a few years ago) who fought for us all. To talk about ‘female artists’ and ‘male artists’ might encourage to label our work as ‘female’, ‘gendered’ art, and identify it with pre-established styles, pre-judge it, eventually mortify it. Let’s talk about art, about an artist’s work, about their sensitiveness, and avoid attaching gender to it. Let’s respect art. I am looking forward to the day we won’t need statistics anymore.

The future.
L’esperienza dell’Italian Council mi ha insegnato innanzitutto a osare e a chiedere. La ricerca dei partner culturali all’estero è stata intensa, ma quello che mi ha stupito è stata la rapidità con la quale ricevevo risposte, My future art will follow the track of botany and medicinal knowledge. It will mostly be textile and collage art. I am currently developing an exhibition with fellow artist Laura Pugno, to open in Turin in 2025. I am also working on a video for the upcoming restoration of the Redentore garden promoted by Venice Gardens Foundation. I worked with the Foundation before and with its president, Adele Re Rebaudengo, and once produced a stop-motion video for the Giardini Reali. I am also applying for fellowships abroad, so I might just decide to leave for a while…