Stefania Carlotti: Maquette, Memory, and the Uncanny

Stefania Carlotti, who hails from Carpi, Italy, and was born in 1994, creates art that blurs the boundary between what’s real and what’s imagined. She uses papier-mâché and ceramics to design tiny architectural pieces and dioramas, often depicting bars with chaotic interiors and structures that seem unstable, all with colors that evoke a surreal or post-apocalyptic feel. Her work draws inspiration from her memories, stereotypes, and films like Robert Rodriguez's 'From Dusk Till Dawn.' Besides her hands-on creations, she also explores digital art through photomontages that combine her ceramics with explosive scenes from Antonioni’s 'Zabriskie Point' and a looping animation from 2021. After working from her bedroom and at CASTRO in Rome, she now has a studio in a repurposed factory in Lausanne, where she is supported by the SCALA cooperative, founded in 2020. A graduate of ECAL, she challenges the school’s emphasis on graphic design. Currently, she’s teaming up with Alessandro Polo and Marco Rigoni to produce a silent short film focused on discarded objects.