Ambra Castagnetti on Performance, Sculpture, and Interdependent Ecosystems

Italian artist Ambra Castagnetti (Genoa, 1993) challenges anthropocentric conventions by exploring dynamics within natural and imaginary ecosystems. She was among four beneficiaries of the inaugural Biennale College Arte scholarship, launched in 2021. Her work is represented by galleries including Francesca Minini, Galleria Rolando Anselmi, and Mana Contemporary New York. In September 2023, her performance "Kompostovnik" won the first edition of the Pini Art Prize at Fondazione Adolfo Pini. The performance merges action, sculpture, and body through wearable costumes and ritualistic movements, culminating in the physical death of all characters in a millenarian hope for rebirth into a higher collective consciousness. Castagnetti describes her creative process as beginning with image folders, drawings, AI-generated images, and films, followed by studio work where forms develop almost autonomously through casts, ready-made objects, assemblages, or fortuitous circumstances. She believes artists should use their platforms to denounce uncomfortable truths, despite the threat of censorship in the current sociocultural climate. The interview was conducted by Artribune in collaboration with Polimoda Undergraduate Fashion Styling students in Florence.