Silvia Battista was born in Rome, Italy, lived for twenty years in London and at present lives and works in Liverpool, UK.. She is a multidisciplinary artist and writer, associate professor in contemporary performance and member of the collective MM Material Matters. She interested in working with myths, mythopoiesis and non linear narratives through drawing, sound, performance and writing. Her research focuses on creative processes that operate as spiritual practices capable to generate each time differently perception and identity.. This touches on ecological and political discourses related to how reality is narrated and consequently constructed.
She celebrates the practice of weaving as research methodology. She weaves the symbolic, the religious, the mythological and the folkloristic with post-human feminist theories to re-think the meanings of being 'human' in the 21st century.
She holds a PhD (2008-2014) in performance studies (Royal Holloway University) with a thesis focused on the notion of the numinous in contemporary performance/live art practices; an MA (2004-2006) in Communication Art and Design (Royal College of Art and Design, London) with a thesis on the work of Alejandro Jodorowsky and the theatricality of his psychomagic practices; and a First Class Honours degree (1992-1996) in Fine Art (Academy of Fine Art, Rome). Her work has been shown internationally, in UK, USA, South Africa, India and Europe, lately, Lately, Lately, she presented her work at RUINS festival (2021), performed at the Angelfield Festival (2020), Tate Gallery in Liverpool (2019), Liverpool Biennial (2019). Between 2018 and 2020 she published the monograph Posthuman Spiritualities in Contemporary Performance: Politics Ecologies and Perceptions with Pagrave, the Edited book The Performances of Sacred Places: Crossing, Breathing and Resisting with Intellect. She is now working with Routledge to publish the edited book Mattering Spiritualities: Performative Experiments for a radical imagining of the World Becoming with David Mason.
In 2023, together with Angelo Madonna, John Elcock, Patric Rogers she formed the Collective MM MATERIAL MATTERS https://materialmatters.org.uk/.
She celebrates the practice of weaving as research methodology. She weaves the symbolic, the religious, the mythological and the folkloristic with post-human feminist theories to re-think the meanings of being 'human' in the 21st century.
She holds a PhD (2008-2014) in performance studies (Royal Holloway University) with a thesis focused on the notion of the numinous in contemporary performance/live art practices; an MA (2004-2006) in Communication Art and Design (Royal College of Art and Design, London) with a thesis on the work of Alejandro Jodorowsky and the theatricality of his psychomagic practices; and a First Class Honours degree (1992-1996) in Fine Art (Academy of Fine Art, Rome). Her work has been shown internationally, in UK, USA, South Africa, India and Europe, lately, Lately, Lately, she presented her work at RUINS festival (2021), performed at the Angelfield Festival (2020), Tate Gallery in Liverpool (2019), Liverpool Biennial (2019). Between 2018 and 2020 she published the monograph Posthuman Spiritualities in Contemporary Performance: Politics Ecologies and Perceptions with Pagrave, the Edited book The Performances of Sacred Places: Crossing, Breathing and Resisting with Intellect. She is now working with Routledge to publish the edited book Mattering Spiritualities: Performative Experiments for a radical imagining of the World Becoming with David Mason.
In 2023, together with Angelo Madonna, John Elcock, Patric Rogers she formed the Collective MM MATERIAL MATTERS https://materialmatters.org.uk/.