Rossella Biscotti
10 x 10 (Single Mothers), 2014
Wool jacquard textile and supporting steel structure
445 × 176 cm
About the work
10 × 10 (Single Mothers) is one of four tapestries Rossella Biscotti created for an exhibition at Museum Haus Esters in Krefeld.
What you see is more than a decorative pattern. Biscotti started with statistical data on single mothers in Brussels. This data was translated into a pattern and then woven on a computer-controlled Jacquard loom.
In doing so, Biscotti establishes a remarkable connection between textiles and data processing. The Jacquard technique was one of the earliest systems to use punched cards. The same principle was later employed for the mechanical processing of information.
The pattern in this work is based on the 2001 Brussels census and the 2006 National Register. Texture and data thus become a single entity: a literal ‘social fabric’.
Biscotti also draws attention to the limitations of statistics. A census attempts to classify people into categories, even though reality is constantly changing. Behind the figures and patterns are ultimately real people and individual lives.
Rossella Biscotti
° 1978 in Italy. She lives and works in Brussels and Amsterdam. From Brussels, she develops research-based art projects in different parts of the world.
Her work has been shown at institutions including CAC Vilnius, Fondazione Galleria Civica di Trento, the Vienna Secession, WIELS in Brussels, Museum Haus Esters in Krefeld and Museion Bolzano. She has participated in major group exhibitions at venues including MAXXI in Rome and Witte de With in Rotterdam, as well as Manifesta 9, dOCUMENTA (13) and the Venice Biennale. In 2014, she received the Mies van der Rohe Award in Krefeld.
Research plays a central role in her practice. Biscotti is particularly interested in the tension between individual perspectives and collective memory.