Artwork title : Marica

Video link: https://vimeo.com/709678020/592cd39275

“Marica” is a portrait of a Donatella di Cola, a butterfly breeder in Ciociaria, a region between Rome and Naples. She is portrayed as Marica, a pre-roman goddess who was reigned over the animal world. It is a documentary and poetic work.

Donatella has a unique story. She was working as a beekeeper in Paliano, when she had to face an unexpected enemy. A local butterfly invaded the bees’ habitat, ate their honey and destroyed their larvae. Donatella could have fought this parasite, but instead she decided to start breeding it and other species of butterflies.

I was struck by her story, her capacity for metamorphosing a failure into an opportunity, her capacity to make room for change and adaptation, to respect and welcome the unexpected.

“Marica” is a work that is born from this story. It is a tableau-vivant of the butterfly farm. Specifically, it starts with the portrait of a Blue Morpho. With its wings covered in iridescent scales, it closely resembles the Blue Xerces butterfly, which disappeared in the 1940s, the first insect whose extinction was directly linked to human activity. Today, butterflies, excellent pollinators like bees, are all disappearing. In Greek, psyche meant both butterfly and soul. This video is an ode to a disappearing life, a portrait of the complexities of interspecies care work in a post-capitalist economy, a call for us not to lose our souls.

No insects were harmed in the production of this video.