Paola Bernardelli

Paola Bernardelli is an Italian lens-based artist living in Derry, Northern Ireland. Her work is informed by the shifting meaning of ‘taking photographs’ in an image-saturated world and her practice stems from a background in photojournalism and documentation. Paola experiments with research and production methodologies based on archival investigation paired with fieldwork research, focusing on exploring forgotten histories that slip through the fabric of history. She holds a Master of Fine Art from Ulster University, Belfast, and founded the Northern Irish arts organisation Art Arcadia in 2016.

Paola is from Ciociaria, a deprived rural area south of Rome where seasonal and permanent migration has been predominant for centuries. Availing of the Prix de Rome, many French artists became acquainted with the picturesque costumes worn by seasonal Ciociari migrants that roamed the streets. Many of them moved to Paris, in the wake of these artists, to became artist models. La Ciociara, or L’Italienne, became a recurring motif in paintings in 19th-century Paris. While at the CCI, Paola's research will focus on female peasant models from Ciociaria, starting with Fortunata Segatori, painted by Thérèse Schwartze and Wally Moes who spent considerable time in Paris between 1878 and 1884. Documented Ciociare models from the time include Maria Pasqua Abruzzesi (Ernest Hébert); Agostina Segatori, Fortunata’s niece, (Van Gogh, Delacroix, Manet and others); Loreta Arpino (Matisse); Rosalina Pesce (La Semeuse by Oscar Roty). This research will form the foundation for Paula’s new work exploring the experience of the contemporary migrant Moroccan community in Ciociaria.