Contemporary Passages - (Temporary Roots & Interweaving Paths)

Other than in the recent past, when moving was an exceptional experience and journeys were finite, today more people move for temporary periods of time and in multiple directions, driven by curiosity, material need or practical necessity. This creates a new complex geography where people with different perspectives, values and modernities repeatedly criss-cross each other. In such a context, other forms of collectivity and ways of relating to space emerge, which require and shape new combinations of geographic distance and intimacy, physical proximity and knowledge and familiarity.

The artists in the exhibition used intimate actions, poetic imagination and storytelling as strategies to deal with the complexity of reality and the plurality of time and space.

Marjolijn Dijkman presented Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, a collection of photographs taken by the artist during her travels all over the world. While confirming Dijkman’s interest in the nature of public space, this work also attempts to map connections and similarities among different places in the world. The artist took inspiration from Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the world), which is considered the first atlas in the modern sense. But other than Ortelius, Dijkman categorises the images according to personal criteria instead of objective and fixed categories. Those categories are subject to shifts and expansion, influenced by new explorations and encounters.

In their collaborative works, Merel van ‘t Hullenaar & Niels Vis question the structure of time and space through large site-specific installations. They presented Simultaan, a physical and functional transformation of the exhibition space. By adding specific architectural elements and a camera obscura, the artists created a compelling experience of the moment of ‘now’, and underline the social/cultural nature of the definition of space and time.

Lu Cafausu (A False Luke) was a collaborative project by Luigi Negro, Emilio Fantin, Giancarlo Norese & Cesare Pietroiusti. An old coffeehouse, located in a small town in the south of Italy, inspired a series of stories, performances and actions. The artists developed a new chapter of Lu Cafausu, which reflected on the idea of place (or loss of a place) to belong to.