Painting on print paper, words, 20 x 30 cm, 2021

Felice che sei qui (Happy that you are here)

Mixed media on canvas, 150 x 190 cm, 2018.

Belonging to layers

From the serie Désordre
Embroidery on canvas, paper, Liberty fabric, 20x20 cm, 2017

Woman on the phone

Mixed technique, painting on Madras cotton fabric, 130 x 143 cm, 2021.

Vol de nuit ( NIght Flight)

Mixed media, painting on Madras cotton fabric, 135x165 cm, 2021.

Romance d'Enfance (Childhood Romance)

Embroidered wall, 2019.

“Nomadic poetess Coquelicot Mafille brings the walls alive with her monumental stitches, which eclectically feature human, animal and vegetal moments. The light-hearted absurdities created by her complex use of narrative imagine a wet, oniric landscape in which the body is presented in its most intimate form, unaware of being observed. Her works on paper also introduce the rooms on the second floor, referencing ancestral clay sculptures found in a variety of different cultures.“ Benedetta Casagrande Curator.

Learn Birds Tales

From the serie Reperti, work on wood, approx. 60x40, after bronze head of King Obalufon, Yoruba, Ife, Nigeria, 1300, AD.

I am in the embryonic phase of a project concerning the ancient world. It is called Reperti in italian and Fouilles in french. It organizes my passion for archaeology, the vivid emotion I feel for the artifacts created by humanity that preceded us and the ambivalent relationship I have with museums and institutions. For as long as I can remember, the ancient societies of the world have always fascinated me. I was interested in learning about the way of life of ancient people of the Earth, abour how and why they did the things they did.

This project manifests itself through painting,on large scale paper or shaped hand cut wood, tracing chosen figures from antiquity, putting them in dialogue with each others and with us. The material fragility that coexists with a resistance close to eternity, the charge of meaning and rituality, the harmony in forms, materials and manufacture, make us reflect on what the contemporary is made of, on what future memory. Connecting myself to warburgian visions I create a noisy cosmopolitan and humanist sentimental atlas in which ancient presences take voice with very bright colours, becoming very young with a pop soul that transfer to us an amplified, contemplative imaginary, in which we feel the warmth and value of human relationships and skills among themselves and with the environment, a hope that I think it is important to activate at this time. It is not about nostalgia for a hypothetical golden age but about getting closer to attention and knowledge, to the desire to dive into different languages and to tap into intelligences that have been biocompatible and real travellers before us. 

Nigerian King's Head

Painting on paper, 80 x 117, 2021.

The first sketches of the lions are from 2019, after I encountered them on my way to the Art Biennale in Venice to add them to my ongoing research into works from antiquity. I portrayed two of the four lions that have been guarding the Arsenale's land gate since they were brought from Greece to Venice as spoils of war in 1687. I focused on the crouching lion, with its full, regal muzzle, known as the Hephaisteion lion, of Attic origin from the 4th century BC, and on what I consider to be a lioness. An older one, from the 7th century BC, seems to come from the Terrace of the Lions on the island of Delos. Sitting on its hind legs, it resembles representations of Middle Eastern lions, taking us further afield. In drawing them, I was interested above all in their expression, rapt and absorbed.

This is the lioness.

Arsenale's Lioness

Embroidered wall, painting on wall, 5x3x10, Sperlonga, 2021.

For this painting I drew inspiration from the story of Andromeda, but for me this young woman does not wait for Perseus to save her, she sets herself free. She discovers that she has all the strength, the ability, the creativity to advance in her own destiny according to her choices and intuitions. There are no monsters to fear but our own demons to which we are tempted to give way.

Andromeda Scatenata (Andromeda Unchained)

Monumental installation at Fondazione Feltrinelli, Milano, 2021.
Colored tape on glass, 20 x 26 meters.

pic by Francesco Negri

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