Quarantine Journal: Artwork by Mia Martelli

“Quarantine Journal”
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These multimedia collages were made from April-July 2020. These were treated like diary entries in a time of confusion about my dance work being on pause. I’m also in a recovery process, and I feel my identity as “dancer” shifting. I don’t know what to call myself, now, and it feels like a relief. 

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Pre-COVID, Mia Martelli made work primarily in dance. Lately, her focus has shifted towards music, television, cooking, and spirituality. Mia feels challenged by the gap that exists between contemporary art and storytelling. She relies on DIY and kitsch aesthetics, expressive sound + movement (in the body and through other materials), and everyday settings to bridge that gap. Mia lives in Brooklyn and believes the theaters were dead and COVID was the nail in the casket. She wants her work to be unpolished, but cared for. She believes, when it comes to process, in doing the best with what you have, paying her collaborators, and remaining rigorously earnest and honest.

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