An Italian Sculptor on the Art of Working Marble I In the Studio with Francesca Bernardini

I'm Francesca Bernardini, I come from Carrara, I was born here and I've been working with marble for about 30 years. I did my artistic high school, then I attended the Academy of Fine Arts and at the same time I started my adventure here in this laboratory, the SGF in Torano. My passion was born perhaps out of necessity. I chose sculpture as a means of expression because after my artistic high school I think it was the form of expression that belonged to me the most. What fascinates me about marble is the fact that it may seem like a very hostile and hard material, but in reality it is a material that feels if you mistreat it. You create a dialogue, an exchange with it. If I treat it well, it will give me what I want from it. I choose the type of marble based on what I want to do. I almost always choose a material that doesn't have many veins. I like material that is either white or black or grey. I think for my sculpture it is essential that the eye sees the shape and does not suffer in the veins as it can happen. My main inspiration is nature. Everything that I have reproduced or elaborated I found in nature, such as my series From the Abyss, which are dedicated to the sea of ​​Sardinia, where I immersed myself as a child and looked carefully at shells, anemones, rocks, fish, corals. The message I want to give with these works is to continue to marvel at nature and above all to respect this nature that gives us this emotion of wonder that we have only when we are children. Speaking of the series Nidi, Bozzele e Crisalide, I was inspired by the thanes, the shelters and the nests of birds, insects, etc. I started this series because I needed an intimate place where to put all my thoughts, my joys, my pains. I started to elaborate these closed forms, like small battleships that represented my intimate world. The nests represent a desire for a family, for a home, for a child. The Crisalides, on the other hand, always have an intimate meaning, an inner search, an evolution, a desire to grow, to change for the better. I like this extreme moment of tension when the Crisalide is about to break or a seed is about to open. The series Connection is more recent and was born from my desire to make it clear that communication is the most important thing. Communication, speaking, creates dynamics, emotions and strong connections. I think that diversity has been a source of inspiration and wealth. My sculpture immediately has variations, because at the beginning I made single pieces, but with Connection I looked for a more modular sculpture, with both ellipsoidal and geometric modules. In my sculpture, what I look for is tension. I like it when the volumes run fast, when the lines have no defects and must run very fast. I like the dynamism of the sculpture. I draw my idea and fix it on the sheet. Then I go straight to choose the marble and I start directly on the marble, without models. I usually start with a flexible, with a big blade, a disc. I cut, I geometrize my volume, my shape. Then I use the pneumatic hammer and model the shape. Then, with smaller chisels, I cut my shape, make the details. Then comes the most complex and important part of the sculpture, the skin that you want to leave to the sculpture, the surface. There are various surfaces that I like, that I have experienced. Usually, on black materials, I like to scratch the surface to make an almost velvety skin. On the other hand, in white marble, I never like to polish. Almost always, my white sculptures have what we in Carrerino call an egg skin, that is, a finish that reaches a paper of 400 or 300. It does not go beyond this fine grain of paper. For monumental sculptures, it is essential to have a model. When I go to other countries and I have to do my project, it is very important to have a very precise plan of what you have to do. Everything is very similar to working in small, only that the tools change, the dimensions change, the point of view. With a large sculpture, you have to rely above all on geometry, calculations, measurements and sketching. The most beautiful thing is when the sculptures are installed and you see this sculpture vertically or horizontally and you ask yourself, did I do it? This is very exciting.