Tamara Ferioli: Her Own Way

“I wonder if Ferioli’s experience and encounter of Iceland was like déjà vu? That is how it seemed to me. Not like déjà from a dream but rather from another life. It is as if the extreme contrasts in Icelandic landscapes – the soft green grass and hard core volcanic rocks, black sands and glaciers, and the life of the inhabitants intertwined in it – had a great impact on her. As she described it, not in a surprising but a comforting way, a feeling of security of something that you know very well even though you are seeing it and experiencing it for the first time. Her obsession and attraction to Iceland seems almost like she is spellbound.
I met Ferioli in the West Fjords during her latest visit to Iceland. She seemed out of breath and as if she had no time to waste. We met in a little café a few days before her trip ended, she was researching, discovering, and finding inspiration for her exhibition. After a hot cappuccino and a Belgian waffle at the café, which was located in the middle of nowhere, she had to run. She was like a sponge, drinking in the surroundings, allowing them to seep into her system and circulate there while she captured what she sourced for. Ferioli has, in her own way, taken a part of Iceland with her and I’m certain it will stay with her for time to come. The forces she found and moved her in Iceland will haunt her and she will be back, no doubt.”