marzia migliora  was born in 1972 and is based in Turin, Italy. As a multi-media artist, Migliora's œuvre consists of video, sound installations, drawings, and photography. But in all her work, the issues of identity and the frailty of the human spirit are explored. A major theme that appears is the tension and conflict people experience within themselves and in relation to the outside world. Migliora is drawn to the notion of digging and emphasizes the individual process of searching for identity. She makes references to Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung as a source for some of her work. Jung was the founder of Analytical Psychology and approached the understanding of the psyche through worldly experience. The psychological experience cannot be isolated from the physical, and the only way to understand one is by acknowledging the other. Jung also believed in the importance of integrating opposites, an idea Migliora manifests in many of her works, including the 2001 video Ortiche (Nettles).

The image Ortiche (Nettles) is a still from a video that, in a loop, has Migliora’s face disappearing and reemerging to the rhythm of a lullaby. After three days of absolute silence, fasting, and no contact with the outside world, Migliora submerged herself in a bath of milk and ortiche, also known as nettles, a variety of prickly plants. By using her own body to experience the soothing feel of the milk and gentle music with the harsh stings of the nettles, Migliora shows that the tensions between pleasure and pain are not mutually exclusive. The image evokes thoughts of babies, who are initially caressed and nurtured with warm baths and soft lullabies. Eventually they will have to grow up and struggle through physical and emotional difficulties in the world. Migliora integrates these opposite forces into her work and heightens the sense of intense conflict in order to expose the delicate nature of the human body and mind.

--Cicie Sattarnilasskorn, MA, Art History, George Washington University