Made with resins, these hearts, grafted into a metal mesh, appear suspended in their Plexiglas display casing, which enhances their brilliance and shapes them into captivating objects of desire. The artist calls these Marilyn and Games.  This latter evokes our own childhood games, linking them with a memory that we all hold, while, at the same time, loading them with a symbolic meaning that can transcend the pain and suffering of the world. These represent icons, stamps, seals, or notes from a symphony of eloquently opposed emotions, presented in one single, visual playful image.

Parallelepipeds, transparent display cases and mirror structures (Little Tower) are works akin to sculptures or installations (Light Wall, 2015). I was particularly struck by a piece entitled Nirvana, created in 2014.  For this work, Daniela Forcella emphasises the material used through the insertion of a light fitting.  This is by no means a secondary component, as we will see in my final outcome. It is certainly true, as critics have pointed out, that culturally speaking, Daniela Forcella approaches her work through an Anglo-Saxon matrix, which is experimental, open and free from superstructures.

The creation of an innovative visual and artistic culture, which coincided in Great Britain with the second industrial revolution, and which led William Morris to envisage an all-around authentic art style, did not occur simultaneously in Italy, or at least not before the manifestation of Futurism.  The experimentalism of Daniela Forcella has encompassed various technical and formal outcomes.  It could also be said to enter the so-called realms of "applied arts”, which lead the artist to explore a diversity of areas, through comprehensive and freeform cultural interaction.  This can be seen in the experience of great artists from the past, from Dalì to Cocteau, and from Warhol to all the conceptual art from the sixties, not to forget, of course, Marcel Duchamp.

Should Little Marilyn inevitably lead us to think of Warhol, it would also be true that the depiction of the pop heart brings to mind a figure who, within the same cultural space, stands out for his uniqueness: Jim Dine.  With Dine, the heart is also a strong and constant iconic shape, and a symbol that we have all scribbled, at least once in our lifetime, into a diary or onto some sheet of paper.  Meanwhile, in today's virtual world, we send this from our smartphones.  Even in a jewellery advertisement we can find the phrase "A heart is forever", while the heart of art creations permeates canvases, everyday objects, designs and the world of fashion, in all its constant and global prefabricated imagery.

Based on her study, Daniela Forcella's Cartographies, created in wood, Plexiglas, 3D engravings and fluorescent colours, depicts the heart appearing as a signal.  This is a cycle of works created in 2017, represented by fantasy geographical maps, which form shapes, becoming sculptures and installations, and in which a little man reflects pensively, before embarking on a new journey.  The hearts, either concave or convex, trace out the route, and give off implicit signals and suggestions - or so we assume. Also, as in this case, the process of serial works takes importance again. Frames, from the "Cartografie" series, appears like a fragmented image of Walter Benjamin speaking, as it stands between our memory and the contemporary narration of a time that flows in syncopated rhythm, like the memory of Mondrian's Broadway Boogie Woogie.

In her latest works, Daniela Forcella's approach to monochrome appears to be more decisive and systematic, making use of a single colour. Monochrome not only represents this use of a single colour, but also an idea and an aesthetic vision of art. Monochrome, which often comprises an abstract notion, is conceptually linked to the idea of cancelling out the historical narratives of painting and storytelling. Furthermore, the timescale required for carrying out such work is a very important factor. Forcella loves the materialistic side of her work, which is indeed evident from her latest experimentations. To transform matter, whether this be pigment, tissue paper or salt, for example, is an essential part of the living process of metamorphosis, and so too of contemporary alchemy.

The idea of painting without a pictorial image is linked, historically, to the language of a great many twentieth-century artists; we can name artists like Malevich, who changed course after coming across figurative art, this also being the case with Kandinskij.  Here, we must not forget to mention William Turner, an artist from the past who, given his total self-determination to interpret without describing, was specifically construed by critics as a pre-informal painter.

Nevertheless, the difference, which has now found its own balance between abstraction and figuration, allows us, and also Daniela Forcella, to undertake an introspective journey, without any formal preconceptions, or rather any preconceived shapes.

In his essay on the concept of the sublime, Barnett Newman lashes out against a type of abstractionism which, according to him, has merely become a decorative mannerism. This seems to be due to a misinterpretation of primitive and primal art forms.  The artist stands in favour of the purity that art reveals to the world, and the "vital fluids" it contains, rather than the plastic elements.

Through Daniela Forcella's experience, there has been, in particular, a journey to Israel, which led her to reflect more deeply on the ideas of conflict, of spirituality and of social contradictions.  Her works of this period are an authentic testimony to this.  On entering her studio for the first time, she promptly told me about this, conveying her feelings on this, and describing the extent to which it had influenced her study. This was the mood through which she gradually introduced a series of dark, black, grey and brown coloured works, appearing to be driven by signals.  At times these appear to be the outlines of tyres, or wounds, that when observed from different angles, generate seemingly visual vibrations.

Line, light, shadow, colour and the possibility of a wide spectrum of minimalist variants arise from emotions and moods.  This is why they can be used for self-expression in cycles of artworks, such as those created more recently.  These have resulted in monochrome pieces, presented in white, red and black. In some cases, a two-dimensional surface becomes arched, creating some unexpected volume, and possibly also suggesting the potential for diptychs. In this way, painting can become a three-dimensional experience.

The works of Daniela Forcella are the fruits of a meticulously crafted alchemy.  This is done by forming textures, giving volume to the canvas or revitalizing paper like, for example, a piece in blue, which is playfully suspended and reproduced into a feature.  The same device is used for a white monochrome piece, made of salt. Gradually, step by step, the artist gives definition to, and builds up, her artworks.

An artwork lives and breathes, from its initial set-up, through to its developmental process, of which the incipit will be known, but which may surprise us in its final result.

Through a channel similar to the experience of Pop, Forcella reaches a point of absolute minimalism.  However, this is not of the purist style that we associate with the Sixties, but with a conceptual synthesis, giving special prominence to the technique and the material used.  Abstraction does mean something is missing, but is an aesthetic portrayal of a visual perception. Forcella concretises her own abstract view, of course, but all in adherence with her own, personal view of the world.  The progression and development of her work flows naturally into an upwardly spiralling perspective.

Daniela Forcella displays her emotions.  Be these through the moods that lead her to react with energy, through her positive and constructive passion, or through that indispensable artistry, which brings the life of her inner being into the space.  This is the mental and physical place, and the universe of values, in which an artwork carries its meaning.

Rudolf Arheim discusses our inability to perceive a closed space at the same time as an open space. Therefore we must envision it in an abstract form only.  To him, art is not a purely formal exercise, rather, it is the mind expressing itself.  Above all, art that we call conceptual art comprises the artist's will to express a thought, that is, to make the mind function, not merely just the eyes.

It is for this reason that a signal, as well as colour, can now liberate us from the need to stop at an image, and at its description.  Consequently, the discipline of monochrome is now practised by many contemporary artists no longer seeking to match up to the phenomenal vision of nature, asthe impressionist painters, on the other hand, did seek.  Instead, they search for its essence.

While reflecting in this way, I would certainly not wish to exclude from my ideas, a priori, the existence of figurative art, nor fail to discuss whether Cèzanne's is "abstract or figurative", or fail to emphasize how abstract art is actually "concrete". Daniela Forcella is an interpreter of her time, she does not look back because, on the contrary, her perspective is always forward-looking.

Finally, the past exists even in the present, automatically becoming something else. Its surface is skin-like, and skin is like a mirror, showing one's personal identity in the most visible way. Our skin ages with us, like our identity card. The signals that Daniela Forcella move around on her artistic surface are like footprints, created with varying and very sophisticated techniques. How could we not mention her use of polystyrene, a material that is merely static and cold, but which recalls the works of Rudolf Stingel's art of the nineties, such as in Rooms of Love, exhibited in Basel a few years ago at the exhibition Spirit of Love, displaying small rooms (or boxes) that are numbered, and presented in mixed media.

Analysing an artwork involves a cosmological vision of today's complexities in the light of history, philosophy, scientific research and contemporary thought, right up to new technologies.

Some pioneers of the past have also made gradual use of techniques that are considered less "artisan", but have become more and more integrated with new media, in search of a closer interpretation of their own present times. If used well, techniques and technologies allow us to further broaden our horizons. Like a modern alchemist, Daniela Forcella transforms the fragility of paper into a strong, durable material, and vice versa, as she uses solid materials to delicately play with the transparency of her sentiments.

A thought expressed in 1920, by Naum Gabo, often comes to my mind.  As quoted by Mario De Micheli in his book, Le AvanguardieArtistiche del Novecento [TheArtistic Avant-gardes of the Twentieth Century], "The greatest beauty is our actual existence. Life recognises neither good nor evil, nor justice as a moral measure ... Life does not recognize abstract rational truths as a measure of knowledge: a fact is the greatest and surest of truths. Such are the laws of life "...