Similar public research sessions are being conducted internationally, in accordance with the international focus of the artist’s project, in locations such as London, Munich, Tokyo, and Milan. Participation is voluntary, and will happen during the museum’s opening hours, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. All contributions will remain anonymous.

Her research project, Ministry of Loneliness, currently explores our relationship with loneliness and pain heightened by the common experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research project, developed in collaboration with Outset England, Jupiter Woods, Italian Embassy in Tokyo, and ICA Milan, was awarded the Italian Council X grant for the artists’ international research issued by the Italian Ministry of Culture (DGCC).

The project starts practically and symbolically from the Ministry of Loneliness in the United Kingdom, a ministry appointed in 2018 to tackle social and health problems related to loneliness, and replicated in Canada and Japan in 2021 to battle the increasing suicide rates aggravated by social isolation and the pandemic crisis. By visiting the parliamentary archives, investigating scientific and fictional literature addressing loneliness, collecting personal testimonies, and participating in several groups and initiatives currently combating loneliness at various social and political levels, Rebecca Moccia has been gathering research on the subject since February 2022. The research project will culminate in a publication and exhibition at ICA Milan in 2023.

About the artist

Rebecca Moccia (b. 1992) is an Italian trans-disciplinary artist. Her practice explores the materiality of perceptive and emotional states that can emerge from specific social and spatial characteristics. She realizes installations with different media described as “medial atmospheres” that surround the bodies, but also that traverse and interacts with them. Creating situations that are placed in socio-cultural and psycho-physical contexts including specific temporal elements such as the temperature, seasonality, and past, Rebecca Moccia’s critical research investigates the neoliberal regime of visibility and the processes of anesthetization, delocalization, and privatization of the sensitive presence.

Rebecca Moccia’s works have been exhibited at Jupiter Woods (London), the Italian Cultural Institute (Brussels), Morra Greco Foundation (Naples), Mazzoleni (London-Turin), Museo Novecento (Florence), Manifattura Tabacchi (Florence), Antonio Ratti Foundation (Como), MACRO (Rome), Contemporary Art Museum of Villa Croce (Genoa), ENSBA (Lyon), Academiae Youth Art Biennale (Brixen), among others.

Between 2021 and 2022, Rebecca Moccia was: artist-in-residence at Outset Climavore Residency (London); artist fellow at Castro projects (Rome); artist-in-residence at Casa degli Artisti (Milan); among the winners of Cantica21 award by MAECI-DGSP/MiC-DGCC in partnership with MAMbo-Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna collection; and awarded the Italian Council X International Artist Research grant by the Italian Ministry of Culture.

She is among the founding members of AWI – Art Workers Italia.