Hi, I’m Barbara.

I am an Italian contemporary multimedia artist, artivist and project coordinator. My work operates at the rich intersection of fine arts, spatial design and socially engaged artivism.

Visual practice.

My background is in advertising, where I worked as a creative director. My transition into professional visual art became definitive in 2001, while I was in Berkeley, California. It was there that I established my artistic voice, shifting my primary focus towards 3D art, wall sculpture-paintings, that investigate non-conscious imagery and the invisible dynamics flowing through human interactions.

Sound, voice and reading.

Central to my practice is also a profound investigation of sound, voice and acoustic dimensions, rooted in my past experience as a radio author, host and audio-blogger.

This exploration of sound and words, combined with my visual work, led to the publication of Umano come me in 2007, an anthology bringing together poetry, painting and sculpture. The book later became the focus of the documentary film Improvvisando: suono, segno, attesa, materia. by director Massimo D’Orzi.

Over the decades, I have cultivated extensive cross-disciplinary collaborations with celebrated composers, bridging the worlds of sound and form alongside acclaimed international jazz figures such as Enrico Pieranunzi, Stefania Tallini and Gabriele Mirabassi. My visual works have directly inspired and appeared on multiple international album covers.

My devotion to the power of sound and voices also fuels my active role as a community reading advocate and educator, specialising in expressive reading aloud and Italian prosody through my training project, The Italian Reading Room.

Relational art.

In recent years, I have woven these vocal and relational elements into socially engaged art forms. My dialogue with different disciplines has also extended into editorial design, jewellery design, interior architectural installations and custom furniture.

Since 2020, my path has increasingly evolved towards international artivism and relational art in and for public spaces. I am the founder of Baci Sospesi™ (Suspended Kisses), an expansive multimedia project combining interactive physical sculptures, poetry and intimate audio portraits. This participatory project has generated important international partnerships, including collaborations in Germany with artist Lorena Terzi in Berlin, and in Portugal through several artistic collaborations, particularly in the city of Leiria, with a Baci Sospesi workshop, two related collective exhibitions and a permanent Baci Sospesi installation co-created with the amazing Portuguese artist Abílio Febra.

Serving as the president of the Blu Shabaka APS, non for profit organization, I continue to direct and implement collaborative projects that champion creative health and the foundational belief that art is relationship, and viceversa.