A group show of five women artists in Ferrara reflects on the human-nature relationship

From March 27 to May 29, 2022, the PAC - Ferrara Pavilion of Contemporary Art will host the exhibition Out of Time. Restarting from Nature, as part of the 19th edition of the Women’s Biennial. The works of five international women artists, Mónica De Miranda (Portugal/Angola, 1976), Christina Kubisch (Germany, 1948), Diana Lelonek (Poland, 1988), Ragna Róbertsdóttir (Iceland, 1945) and Anaïs Tondeur (France, 1985) will be presented in a group show. The exhibition is organized by UDI - Unione Donne in Italia and the Modern and Contemporary Art Galleries of the City of Ferrara, and is curated by Silvia Cirelli and Catalina Golban.

The exhibition aims to illustrate the need to rethink entrenched structures, reorganize established practices in the social and economic spheres, and show links to the ongoing ecological debate; it also intends to explore the relationship between human beings and the environment and examine their relationships, as well as focus on the ways in which the environment is appropriated as a dramatic consequence of the exploitation of natural resources.

The five artists investigate the interaction and possible alliance between all living beings. Different models of reading and various perspectives bring attention to the ways in which nature has been disrupted in human beings’ quest for hegemony, emphasizing the repercussions on both the environment and the social fabric.

The exhibition kicks off with Iceland’s Ragna Róbertsdóttir, an artist whose work is characterized by a strong minimalist style. She uses lava, glass, pumice, obsidian, volcanic rocks, salt, or shells, thus expressing her visceral connection to the natural world. In addition to some of his most significant works, such as the Saltscape series, made with sea salt and black lava salt, or View, in which the red lava of the Seydisholar volcano dominates, the exhibition will also host two site-specific works: interventions that evoke at the same time the magnificence and fragility of the natural universe.

Different, however, is the approach of French artist Anaïs Tondeur, whose research focuses on a scientifically derived artistic practice, the result of studies carried out with the collaboration of geologists, oceanographers, physicists and anthropologists. The two multidisciplinary installations in the exhibition are the visual translation of scientific investigations respectively dedicated to the traces of petricore, the unmistakable smell of rain on dry soil, and the analysis of ocean cycles.

It then continues with the visionary world of Mónica De Miranda, Portuguese but of Angolan descent, whose cultural heritage has strongly influenced her artistic journey, leading her to the exploration of environmental evolution from an anthropological point of view. Confronting the wounds of violent colonialism, De Miranda focuses on the convergences between social stratification and ecosystem change, proposing “emotional geographies,” as she calls them, that is, urban narratives that follow intimate identity processes.

The prevarication of man over nature also returns central in the creative journey of Polish artist Diana Lelonek, who, offering a critical view on the processes of overproduction, focuses on the possibility of alternative solutions of coexistence and cohesion between the natural and human worlds.

The exhibition concludes with the work of Christina Kubisch, one of the most representative figures of German sound art. Drawing on a novel aesthetic, Kubisch has succeeded in projecting “acoustic landscapes” through the exploration of the power of sound. His polyphonic sound installations investigate so-called silent noise pollution, a fundamental sensory experience in order to be able to understand the state of electromagnetic saturation spread around us.

Hours: Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Tickets: Full 5 euros, reduced 3 euros.

Image: Ragna Róbertsdóttir, Lava landscape (2022, lava on wall, site-specific installation). Courtesy of Persons Projects.

A group show of five women artists in Ferrara reflects on the human-nature relationship

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