Sculptural paper messages
- Barbara feels close to the Japanese culture of paper
- She has a strong background in architecture
- Her research lab is involved in social projects
Seduced by the potential of places and objects, Barbara Ventura graduated in architecture, to become a designer, but switched towards the architecture of workplaces and digital representation early on. From here, she turned to craftsmanship and design, starting an activity of teaching, workshops and projects with a social feature. Paper subsequently became her instrument of choice in carrying out her research, inspired by the Japanese aesthetic. In 2017, Barbara founded BVDS|barbaraventuradesignstudio, an independent design and research lab. The ethos of her studio and her experience with architecture are the pivot around which Barbara has radiated all her different creative and professional paths. In her paper works, lightness and fairytale suspension interact with the strength of a material at once malleable and resistant, where light and shadow alternate.
Discover her work
INTERVIEW
It is a path that actually began with paper maquettes in architecture and has developed over the years. Paper allows me to practise in a simple and immediate way: immediacy is an enormous advantage to me, along with its lightness, which I adore.
Most people cannot imagine how many different types of paper there are, with various characteristics. For example, there is a paper-stone, resistant to water. Paper is a malleable tool in the hands but a very powerful support for saying things: it is a bearer of meaning.
I am very receptive to all things! I feel close to the Japanese aesthetic, have always loved Munari, and I also like Ingo Maurer and his work with light. In nature I am fascinated by branches, roots, by anything that is stringy, that can be transformed into threads. Anything that allows me to talk about the world using puffs, bubbles, light things.
My installation designed during Covid. I asked friends to tell me their fears and desires, which I wrote onto both sides of paper sheets with a typewriter. Then I folded this into 56 columns over 2 metres tall. I collaborated with the musician Michele Agazzi and asked the photographer Francesco Acerbis to send me photos of Paris during the lockdown. The work was exhibited in an apartment in my city, Bergamo.
