Laura Grisi: Cosmogonie

The exhibition Cosmogonie (Cosmogonies) gravitates around the work of Laura Grisi, observing it from a contemporary perspective, also thanks to the juxtaposition with works by artists such as Leonor Antunes, Nancy Holt and Liliane Lijn. 

Laura Grisi’s research existed outside the categories and definitions of her time. Though her work reveals affinities with the optical investigations of Kinetic Art, the conforming references to the society of consumption typical of Pop Art, the industrial materials and geometry of American Minimal Art, and the dematerialization of Arte Povera, she shaped an independent position for herself, whose nomadism is now the central focus of a rediscovery, also thanks to a series of recent international exhibitions.

Seven large works by the artist, in various media–sound, painting, video and light installations–offer a new opportunity to enter her reflections on image perception, and her explorations of the tensions between nature and artifice. Her research often takes material form in the creation of installations and immersive technological environments that reproduce atmospheric phenomena, allowing the artist to grasp nature as a “mental and technologized fact”, while conserving an intimate spiritual energy. 

In the attempt to redefine space and its image, the artist makes use of materials like steel, glass and above all neon, which permits malleability in terms of shapes and colours close to painting, creating illusions of depth and layers of perception. The technological immersive installations and environments with which she reproduces atmospheric phenomena allow her to grasp nature as a “mental and technological fact”, which nevertheless conserves an intimate spiritual energy. 

The exhibition includes an installation by Leonor Antunes (1972) that assembles horse bridles to create a fluid, suspended presence in the space, focusing on the materials and techniques of craftsmanship, in contrast with the solidity of the surrounding architecture. The show also features a photography by Nancy Holt (1938-2014) portraying the mutable conditions of light and shadow of the installation Sun Tunnels located in desert of Utah across a long summer day, and a sculpture by Liliane Lijn (1939), which stems from her 1980s research on organic forms and the sensations perceived by holding natural materials in the hand, like a wet stone just taken from a riverbed.