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We’re back with the Ceraudo Salon – this time with actress, filmmaker and poet, Greta Bellamacina.

Often on the move, she sees the notion of home and her sense of being as almost nomadic. Having moved six times since her first son was born six years ago, her home is full of ‘objets’ collected from the different places she has lived. For Greta, home is a place where energy is created and she can’t deny her love for home comforts. The multiple shades of pink found peppered throughout her house are inspired by nostalgic childhood memories of journeys around Europe and the washed out pinks and whites seen on apartment blocks in European towns. Greta welcomed us into her home where she lives here with her husband and two sons [Lucian and Lorca]…

How far do your personal life and professional life coincide with one another? How do you ‘live your art’?

To me it is one thing. It is a singular dialogue. This voice of art sort of filters down to the smaller details of the day. It comes from the same need to hold something in place for a while. To give it oxygen, to bring a new perspective. I guess acting and poetry have been the most consistent things in my life. I did both from a young age. I spent a lot of summers acting and writing in youth theatres around London and I wrote my first book of poetry at 18. I like the possibilities of both art forms. I think these dual forms of expression are very deeply rooted within me.

Often a line of poetry will come to me, then I’ll think this is something my character would say in the film. It all sort of rolls into one. This same voice is all a part of the truth. The same revealing of the silent things in the world that give it meaning. I find writing poetry to be quite painful at times, I think poetry holds a lot of darkness and hardness to its language. Acting has always been something much more hopeful and tangible.

Are there objects and designs in your everyday life that inspire you? This could be anything from particular buildings to tiles on the Tube, the shape of your kettle, the typography on a sign, etc.

I always keep poetry books by my bed and in my bag, I like to have several on the go. I recently read a lot of Pasolini poems while I was filming in Rome. I like to ground myself in the local literature, especially when I am in a foreign place for a while. I found an old translated collection in a charity shop before I left, which is published by City Lights, called Roman Poems. I like to wander around a city and keep their voices in my head, especially when I am travelling alone. I also love Deborah Levy, I like the form she writes in. A sort of living diary of her place in time… Books are the one thing I collect, they are probably my most burdening joy.

Shop Greta’s Picks

Sonia Delaunay said: ‘Colour is the skin of the world?’
What colours are you drawn to and what do they express in your world?

Yes, I agree - I am never too precious with my clothes. I often shop in charity shops; I want the clothes to enhance the world I am making. My world often comes with my many voices. Maybe that is why I like vintage things. It’s like the John Ashbery poem “So Many Lives”… I like things to feel like that poem.

How can art and design be more inclusive?

I think it’s important to self publish work. It removes inbuilt hierarchies and lets the work live authentically in its own voice. I think the internet has been helpful in this respect. I think we need to keep challenging what we think of as normal and take more risks on things which aren’t considered interesting or cool or likely.

What does ‘home’ mean to you?

Home is about creating an energy. A place that is both still but also moving with you in the world. I am forever moving things around and painting things. We’ve lived in six different places since our first son was born. Basically a new place every year for six years. There is something very nomadic about my sense of being and idea of home. I like change, but also the comfort of being closed off from the world with the noise and the sky blowing against the walls. I like to feel the elements around me when I create, that’s when I feel most at home.

Do you have any muses or figures who inspire you?

Anyone who gives their full hearts. Anyone who takes a risk to create and share their souls no matter how small. I think it’s about creating a community around you with other people who share similar pictures of the world. People who are prepared to go on the same flight. These are the people that inspire me. I often find inspiration in working several times with someone. It’s rare in creative industries to do that, but I think it can be a very special thing. I’ve acted in two features films by the Emmy Award-winning director Jaclyn Bethany, Indigo Valley and Highway 1, which were both shot in Los Angeles. Now we have just co-written our first feature film together called “Tell That To The Winter Sea” which we are shooting this autumn. It has been hugely inspiring working with someone so collaboratively in all aspects of film and really exploring each other's position on things both big and small.

What would be the ideal space, building or room to express you and your work?

Trains— something about being between two spaces. Maybe it goes back to this sense of being on the move. There is romance in the wind, and on a train you are in the wind. I’ve been writing a lot about wind this year; my new poetry collection is in fact going to be called “Biography of The Wind”.

We’ve loved speaking to Greta and hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about her creative inspiration and process as much as we have.
These images feature the Felix Slipper Chair in Coconut, the  Elio Armchair in Tangerine and the Piero Footstool in Turmeric.
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