At Mart in Rovereto focus on Chiara Dynys and her works investigating light

The Mart - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto hosts, from April 22 to August 27, 2023, an exhibition focus on Chiara Dyn ys (Mantua, 1958), entitled Chiara Dynys. The Shadow of Light, curated by Daniela Ferrari. Light and its antithetical counterpart, shadow, not understood in its negative connotation but rather as a mysterious projection, an invisible entity in the absence of brightness. These are the themes at the center of the project, which is among those organized at the unconventional spaces of the museum - such as the square and the foyer - revolves around the distinctive themes of the artist’s poetic journey that, in such places, acquire a high symbolic value. Indeed, much of Chiara Dynys’ work is characterized by light that investigates the space created by light, and in Chiara Dynys. The Shadow of Light the artist sets out to investigate the environment with which the work comes into contact, going beyond material surfaces, transforming light itself into a foundational poetic element and establishing a relationship with the viewer of mutual meaning-making.

The sculpture Gold Shell, like a magical threshold, welcomes visitors to the museum plaza: a large structure of shiny metal, drawing in the air the symbolic form typical of the artist’s language and giving substance to the idea of going beyond and passage, a crucial theme in her poetics. For Chiara Dynys a door is a challenge, the courage in going beyond, a new beginning.

Inside the foyer and in collaboration with BUILDING, the seven Giuseppe’s Door, whose title is a tribute to Giuseppe Panza di Biumo, who has included a light installation by the artist in his collection since the 2000s. Made of cast Murano glass, the Giuseppe’s Doors attract the public with their brilliant colors. The works are based on the model conceived by the artist in 1992 at the time of the exhibition at the Saint-Etienne Museum: a kaleidoscope of lights that reflect on the sculptures, generating ever new emotional meanings. From the light evoked by the large door that stands out in the square and the small sculptures, we move on to the light of awareness emanating from the Enlightening Books, illuminating books, also on display in the museum foyer: sandblasted and hand-painted glass books, symbolic of how much knowledge clarifies our view of the world, in the opalescent white versions of BUILDING. That is illumination, the light of knowledge: that is magic. As it happens in real life, among all possible books, only some are illuminated, for not all of them illuminate our private existential path.

A double-stranded bond Chiara Dynys has with the Mart. With Giotto Behind the Mirror, a site-specific installation inspired by the great master’s perfection, the artist is among the protagonists of the exhibition “Giotto and the Twentieth Century,” curated by Alessandra Tiddia, running at the Mart until May 1. The work, made of ultralight crystal, refers to Giotto’s magical and absolute ability to synthesize, which goes beyond Byzantine schemes, anticipating the values of humanism. At the center is the theme of reflection: a kind of “visual trap” that inhibits full vision of what one should actually see.

Moreover, back in 2011, the artist collaborated with the prestigious museum institution by creating the installation Memory and Forgetting, which is still set up in the Mart’s outdoor spaces and which, in the circular arrangement of large steel letters, evokes the human capacity to remember and to forget seamlessly.

For all information about the exhibition you can visit the Mart’s website.

Image: the Joseph’s Doors. Photo: Carlo Baroni

At Mart in Rovereto focus on Chiara Dynys and her works investigating light

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