Dorotea Vallense: Mondo Giallo

The images of Giovanni Battista Piranesi from the 18th century and the giallo films of the 1960s and 1970s share an aesthetic vision of the uncanny. Both visual languages stage spaces not as neutral backgrounds, but as active psychological forces and threats. The architectural space becomes a stage for the subconscious. There, through the play of dramatic contrasts, deep shadows and perspectives, the spatial staging becomes a mirror of inner states such as fear, persecution or madness. But the oppressive constructions and surreal atmospheres can also be read as an expression of a very patriarchal understanding of space. The artist therefore places the faces of the protagonists of giallo films in the context of the cultural aestheticisation of violence, patriarchal power structures and, ultimately, femicide. The artist Dorotea Valense is Dorothee Vallens, the character played by Isabella Rossellini in David Lynch‘s Blue Velvet.