Carla Sacco

Born in 1953

Italy

https://carlasacco.it/

date of insertion in W.A.D. 06/2025

Biography

I was born in July 1953 and grew up in Rome, where I still live today in my home-studio, Sachen—a space I share with my artistic materials, plastic installations, and works by other artists.

My academic background is in the humanities, with degrees in both Economics and Psychology, and a specialisation in Psychotherapy. From an early age, I was drawn to the socio-economic and psychological dimensions of women’s lives. Encouraged by my family to pursue financial independence as soon as possible, I earned a Classical High School diploma alongside my qualification to teach in nursery schools. This dual path gave me early work opportunities in crèches and kindergartens, while also opening a door into the vibrant world of 1970s art.

Through a theatre training programme offered by the Teatro di Roma to early years educators—aimed at producing performances for very young children—I discovered an artistic and educational vision that has animated me ever since. Inspired by the anthropological richness of fairy tales, I found, in the invention and performance of children’s theatre, a mythopoetic and fantastical imagination that continues to shape my artistic practice today.

For many years, I attended the Scuola di Normodinamica (School of Normodynamics) in Rome, where I studied, practised, and taught various psycho-physical disciplines dedicated to the harmonious development of the individual. I later obtained a teaching diploma in Ikebana from the Ikenobo School in Kyoto, focusing especially on the Freestyle form, which combines traditional floral arrangement with artistic materials. I’ve studied photography and life drawing, and currently practise theatrical and musical improvisation at Atmos Arti Terapeutiche in Rome.

Through these varied practices, I’ve developed a deep sensitivity to human relationships, a reverence for nature, and a profound gratitude for the beauty that emerges when life’s diverse elements interact in harmony. I value nature for its resilience—for its ability to adapt and transform in the face of disaster, for its triumph of essence over appearance, and for its eternal becoming. I also value humanity, for the intelligence, compassion, and solidarity it is sometimes capable of expressing.
At Sachen, my home-studio, the atmosphere of daily life is inseparable from that of artistic work. Everyday objects coexist with works of art—finished or still in progress. Materials are always close at hand, ready to be used whenever inspiration strikes. Some are left outdoors, where the weather slowly transforms them, imprinting the passage of time and evoking the idea of impermanence.
I work with fabric, plastic, metal, and organic elements—both large and small—natural remnants, cords and threads of every colour and kind, childhood toys, ancient textiles and wools. These materials are reimagined into characters, trees, animals, totems. I create stories through material microcosms and macrocosms—at once raw and refined—shaped by ritualistic, repetitive gestures that form a kind of “proto-weaving”: a skin, a texture that merges with other matter.

“A kind of thread-wrapping around different material supports, a gestural root that contains the primordial form of the eternal human act of spinning. And just as the Moirai spin the fate of humans, this circular motion—in the deep cycle of time—mirrors the molecular cycle of the double helix: the very essence of the living planet. In motion and form, this cyclical wrapping becomes the background hum, the obsession, the chant of our species’ specificity. The spiral is the essence of the artist’s work, the vital breath of her creations.”

I create environments inspired by the imagery of my inner world, by the shapes of found materials, and by observing the countless interconnections between living beings. My creations—arranged, assembled, or expanded in various ways, and sometimes accompanied by a written text that reveals their poetic or ironic language—populate imaginary worlds suffused with both familiar and unknown sensibilities, drawn from the history of the Earth or from times and places yet to come.
These are adaptive transformations that give life to never-before-seen creatures—hybrid beings that fuse elements from different worlds and integrate by valuing their mutual differences. They carry a longing for a distant, vanished past, and a poignant hope for a future in which nature might heal and renew itself in tender, beautiful forms.
The beauty of humanity is welcomed into other materials, into changed environments—into other lives, whether parallel or still to come. The enchanted world of fairy tales continues to surprise me every day; it tells me stories that are still possible.

Curriculum

Professional Activities
Mar 2025 La Strada del Lago (The Road to the Lake), Site-specific installation, E.Co.Point, Contemporary and Environmental Art Space, Trevignano Romano.
Oct 2024 Femminile Plurale (Plural Feminine), curated by Cinzia Colombo, Ysabelle Dehais, and Carla Sacco, presenting three site-specific installation works: Searching for the Child Mother, The Enigma of the Pomegranate, I Love You
Casa Studio Sachen, 2024 edition of Rome Art Week.
May 2024 Interessere – For Humanity, TI.SEGNO, part of the project UMANITÀ!?, Mesia Space, Rome.
Feb 2024 Tempo Profondo (Deep Time), by Carla Sacco and Jan Stöckel, Site-specific installation and video installations, UMANITÀ!?, Mesia Space, Rome.
Oct 2023 Rosa? (Rose?), Casa Studio Sachen, OPEN STUDIO, 2023 edition of Rome Art Week.
Oct 2022 Kleine Sachen, Piccole Cose (Small Things), Casa Studio Sachen, OPEN STUDIO, 2022 edition of Rome Art Week.
July 2022 MUTeAZIONI, OSMOSI Resonances of Contemporary Art, Angelo Rambelli Botanical Garden, Viterbo, Collective exhibition organized by IGNORARTE.
Mar 2022 Scarti, DRAWING AS CONCEPT #0, Trebisonda, Perugia, in collaboration with Freemocco, Collective exhibition.
Oct 2021 Nidi (Nests), Casa Studio Sachen, OPEN STUDIO, 2021 edition of Rome Art Week.
July 2021 Mutanti, Migranti, Resilienti. Tre, Dodici, Otto (Mutants, Migrants, Resilient. Three, Twelve, Eight), OSMOSI Resonances of Contemporary Art, Botanical Garden of Rome, Cultural Association IGNORARTE, Collective exhibition.
Dec 2020 Confessioni Silenziose (Silent Confessions), CONNESSIONI, Mesia Space, Rome, Site-specific installation.
Oct 2020 Accasàti (Settled), Casa Studio Sachen, OPEN STUDIO, 2020 edition of Rome Art Week.
Feb 2020 Storta Nuziale (The Twisted Wedding Cake), EXCLAMATION, Arca di Noesis Gallery, Rome, Cultural Association IGNORARTE, Collective exhibition.
Dec 2019 The Ways of Care: Speaking, Doing, Watching, Lecture at the Study Day PRACTICING ART TO CULTIVATE HEALTH, Mesia Space, Rome.
Oct 2019 IMMONDO, Installation, Collective exhibition by IGNORARTE, Gard Gallery, Rome. 2019 edition of Rome Art Week.
July 2019 Uccelli Impigliati (Entangled Birds) – INUSUALE: Traces for a Misaligned Exhibition, Casa Studio Sachen, Collective exhibition for 16 artists, media partnership with IGNORARTE.
Mar 2019 Le Manichine (The Little Mannequins), EXCLAMATION, Installation, Collective exhibition, Cultural Association IGNORARTE, Kriskelion Gallery, Piazza Armerina (Sicily).
Oct 2018 Svelàti, Svélati (Revealed, Unveiled), THE SECRET OF THE GARDEN, Collective exhibition at Studio Campo Boario, Rome. 2018 edition of Rome Art Week.
Dec 2018 La Foto Mancante (The Missing Photo), Site-specific installation, Mesia Space, Rome.
Apr 2018 Piccole Cose (Small Things), Installation for the presentation of my artistic work at Mesia Space, Contemporary Art, Rome.
June 2012 The Secret Life of Walls, Men, and Other Animals, Installation for the project IN THE BOX- ALL SESSIONS, Margini e Segni (curated by Maurizio Caminito and Stefania Fabri) in collaboration with Lanificio 159, Rome.
2008–2017 Exhibited my artistic creations in various contexts of Art and Fashion, including the space gavAUdan, ARTE DELL’ORO E ALTRE MATERIE and Gard Gallery in Rome.
In 2017, I participated in the event Arte Indosso (Art to Wear) at the Frammenti d’Arte Gallery, in collaboration with Donatella Vici and D&S ATELIER.
2005–2017 Member of the IKENOBO Study Group Italy, contributed to the setup and exhibitions of artistic floral compositions in the styles of the Ikenobo School of Kyoto, exhibited in cultural and museum spaces such as Santa Rita Exhibition Space and the Canova Museum in Rome’s Villa Borghese.
In 2017, for the tenth anniversary exhibition of the Ikenobo School Italy at the Japanese Cultural Institute in Rome, I created a freestyle installation integrating traditional and contemporary techniques.
2005–2006 Inaugurated the new location of the Lift Gallery in Rome (a gallery in the elevator of Via Pasquale Tola 1, where I lived at the time) with the exhibition of artist Pino Tabacco: Untitled, photo collages. In 2006, during the Vicini Vicini event promoted by the Municipality of Rome, I organised the photographic exhibition by Ingo Stöckel: Tra-Volti e Trasporti.
1976–2018 Educator in Nursery Schools and later Executive Official at the Municipality of Rome. From 1997 to 2018, coordinated activities and budgeting for the Department of Cultural Activities of Rome.
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Education
Since 2010 Studying at ATMOS Therapeutic Arts Association, Rome, focusing on performing, theatrical, musical arts, and photography.
2005–2017 Teacher of Ikebana for the Ikenobo School of Kyoto, specializing in the Free-Style contemporary style, integrating traditional flower arrangement techniques with personal artistic materials. Studied life drawing and methods for designing plastic installations.
1987–1998 Attended the School of Normodynamics of Rome, studying and teaching various psycho-physical disciplines for the harmonious development of the individual.
1986 Degree in Clinical Psychology, University of Rome “La Sapienza”;
later specialised in Psychotherapy with a focus on Transactional Analysis and Gestalt Therapy. Registered in the Lazio Register of Psychologists and Psychotherapists.
1981 Degree in Economics and Commerce, University of Rome “La Sapienza”.
1978 Training Course: The Dramaturgical Possibilities of the Traditional Oral Fairy Tale, organized by Teatro di Roma-Teatro Scuola directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci.
Co-founder and actress of the Laboratorio Teatro Infanzia Theatre Company (1979–1982).
1972 Teaching Qualification Diploma for Preparatory Grade Schools.
1972 High School Diploma (Classical Studies).