Alessandra Galletta's Documentary 'Leaves of Me' Traces Elisabetta Di Maggio's Fragile Conceptual Practice

Presented at the thirty-first edition of Artecinema, the documentary 'Leaves of Me' (2026) is directed by Alessandra Galletta and co-produced with Studio Trisorio, following the practice of Elisabetta Di Maggio. The film examines the artist's meticulous processes: scalpel incisions, carving, and the pinning of butterfly flight paths with entomological pins, a collaboration in which the insect draws and the artist fixes the trace. Di Maggio, born in Milan and based in Venice, treats any existing thing as potential material for representing fragility. 'Il Corredo' (1997), a trousseau of tissue and sugar paper in a white suitcase, is cut with lace-like perforations and consists entirely of single, non-paired pieces, including sheets carved for a single bed, asserting the possibility of a life outside the family schema. 'Rape' (2001), shown at Studio Trisorio, is a soap floor whose bars are incised with the words sole, saliva and sangue, a denunciation in which the scent of soap masks intimate violence. 'La Parete' is a subtractive work in which a cutter incises wall plaster to reveal decorations resembling an excavation. 'Greetings from Venice' (2018) forms a vast mosaic from thousands of discontinued postage stamps, buried beneath the floor to evoke archaeological recovery. Carved paper maps of dense urban agglomerations abstract the city and its transformations. Galletta, an author, curator and art critic, lets the artist and images speak, with discretion and respect.