Bigi’s practice is deeply rooted in research. Immersing herself in complex contexts, she critically engages with philosophical, cultural, and political issues while fostering interdisciplinary connections. In recent years, her work has particularly focused on amplifying female voices silenced by both visible and invisible acts of violence.
Her works, now included in public and private collections, have been awarded and selected for national and international exhibitions in museums, foundations, and art galleries. These include the Sviluppo dei Talenti – Italian Council 12 award, the Francesco Fabbri Prize for the Arts 2022, the Talent Prize 2021, and the exhibition Engaged, Active, Aware: Women’s Perspective Now, which won the Lucie Award – Best Exhibition in 2018.
Her work has been featured in publications such as Artribune, Der Greif, IO Donna, ATPdiary, Insideart, Yet Magazine, Artslife, World Photo Organisation, and the British Journal of Photography.
Since 2022, she has been a faculty member at the Academy of Fine Arts in Macerata, a visiting professor at Campus Jean-Paul Curnier in Seine-Saint-Denis, Paris, and a visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brera.
SELECTED WORKS
Are You Nobody, Too?
Silvia Bigi’s Are You Nobody, Too? sheds light on the taboos that have always accompanied any psychic discomfort, with particular reference to women, who, throughout history, have often been the target of practices of domestication and subjugation to which the mind has rebelled. Through Speakpic, an App that promises to make the motionless face of a photograph speak, Bigi simulated the moment when Irma—her great-aunt, for her entire life kept hidden, far from the public gaze as well as from the officialdom of any family genealogy because of her mental illness—finally speaks. Her voice is artificial, generated thanks to a text-to-speech programme, an interactive vocalisation that simulates the human voice but does not restore its natural spontaneity and inflection. Irma intones a monologue lasting a few minutes, borrowing the words of female poets and writers of the 20th century—themselves victims of disorders such as bipolarism, depression, schizophrenia, suicidal instincts.
Texts by Siri Hustvedt, Anne Sexton, Anne Rice, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Marina Cvetaeva, Iris Chang, Elise Cowen, Florbela Espanca, Gaspara Stampa, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Petya Dubarova, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ingrid Jonker, Christiana Morgan, Alejandra Pizarnik, Assia Wevill, Sara Teasdale, Mary Shelley, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, Sylvia Plath, Alda Merini, Emily Dickinson, Virginia Woolf.
Silvia Bigi, Are You Nobody, Too? 2022, photography, video still polyptych (14+1), glicée print on cotton, 27 x 18 x 2 cm. Edition of 5 (2 AP editions) copy
Silvia Bigi, I’m nobody! Who are you?, 2022, photography, still from video, giclée print on cotton paper, 27 x 18 x 2 cm. Edition of 5 (2 AP editions) copy
1. I’m nobody, who are you?
