From Yves Klein to Wolfgang Tillmans, an exhibition in Bergamo on the transformations of matter

From October 14, 2021 to February 13, 2022, GAMeC in Bergamo will present the exhibition Nothing is Lost. Art and Matter in Transformation, curated by Anna Daneri and Lorenzo Giusti, the second chapter of the Trilogy of Matter, a multi-year exhibition project inaugurated in October 2018 with the exhibition Black Hole. Art and Materiality between Inform and Invisible, curated by Sara Fumagalli and Lorenzo Giusti. The project involves art historians, curators, philosophers and scientists to address a transversal discourse around the theme of matter, contextually activating a dialogue with the history of scientific discoveries and the development of aesthetic theories. The program includes a cycle of three exhibitions, accompanied by as many publications, marked by the presence of authors and works from different generations.

After the first event of the cycle, dedicated to the essence of matter in dialogue with the theories of modern physics, the second scheduled exhibition turns its gaze to the work of those artists who, at different times, have investigated the transformations of matter by drawing inspiration from the life of the elements to develop a reflection on the reality of things, change and time. “Rien ne se perd” (“nothing is lost”) is the incipit of the famous maxim attributed to Lavoisier with which the French chemist explained the general meaning of his law of conservation of mass, which stated that, in the course of a chemical reaction, the sum of the masses of the reactants is equal to the sum of the masses of the products. Matter, in other words, is neither created nor destroyed. From this fundamental principle would flow some key ideas for modernity, which would later lead to the definition of the theory of relativity, to the identification of a substantial equivalence between mass and energy, and thus to the belief, recounted by scientists, artists, and philosophers, in an ever-living, ever-present matter and an ever-changing world.

Thus, Nothing is Lost. Art and Matter in Transformation will entirely occupy the spaces of GAMeC developing a path of strong sensory impact, given the material and synaesthetic nature of the many works on display, from important international collections, both public and private. The four sections of the exhibition (Fire, Earth, Water and Air) are dedicated to the natural elements, understood as states of aggregation of matter, and probe their relationships and transformations: fire/flame state; earth/solid state; water/liquid state; air/gaseous state. Through a rich selection of works, the exhibition aims to compose a picture capable of highlighting the strong link that has always bound artists to the chemistry of the elements and the transformations of matter. A field of investigation and experimentation that in our time also finds a declination on the level of reflection around the impact of human action on natural balances (from the availability of resources to climatic transformations).

The exhibition will collect works from different periods, from Dada and Surrealist creations, indicative of the interest of some authors (such as Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Man Ray or Leonora Carrington) in the theme of alchemy, to the productions of some of the most important exponents of the neo-avant-gardes (from Yves Klein to Otto Piene, from Robert Smithson to Hans Haacke) including the compositions of some artists akin to the poetics of Arte Povera (Pier Paolo Calzolari and Paolo Icaro), sculptural works and installations by authors who emerged in the 1980s (such as Rebecca Horn or Liliane Lijn) until arriving at the recent research of some of the most significant international artists of recent generations, such as Olafur Eliasson, Wolfgang Tillmans, Cyprien Gaillard, Otobong Nkanga, Erika Verzutti and numerous others.

Along the lines of the publication that accompanied Black Hole, the catalog of Nothing is Lost will consist of contributions by the two curators and in-depth essays on the works in the exhibition by international art historians and curators. Each section will be introduced by a scholarly text investigating the exhibition’s themes from the perspective of expert researchers. Also accompanying the exhibition will be a rich program of activities for schools and a series of meetings open to the public featuring scientists, engineers, chemists, art historians, artists and philosophers. The program, which will also include screenings of films, documentaries and works on video, will make use of the collaboration of BergamoScienza for some parts and will be oriented toward popularizing science and raising awareness of the languages of art, addressing topics ranging from new discoveries in chemistry to the applications of knowledge in different fields of industry and the relationship between visual arts and science.

The exhibition will make use of the collaboration of the Meru/Medolago Ruggeri Foundation for Biomedical Research, already the promoter, between 2013 and 2017, with Associazione BergamoScienza and GAMeC, of the prestigious Meru Art*Science Award, aimed at promoting art projects related to the development of scientific research. The new research program - Meru Art*Science Research Program - will fund the creation of a site-specific project for GAMeC’s Spazio Zero. For Nothing is Lost, Swedish artist Nina Canell will present a new environmental installation aimed at investigating the border territory between the dimensions of the organic and the inorganic, between living matter and inert matter. Partnering the exhibition at GAMeC will be the Dalmine Foundation. Established in 1999 on the initiative of TenarisDalmine with the aim of promoting industrial culture, the foundation will promote, both in its Dalmine headquarters and in other venues, a series of workshops for schools, meetings, courses and other activities coordinated by GAMeC’s Educational Services related to the transformation of matter in industry, technology, robotics and the industrial city, and guided by a creative approach attentive to the themes of ecology and the regeneration of materials.

The artists in the exhibition: Ignasi Aballí, William Anastasi, Davide Balula, Lynda Benglis, Alessandro Biggio, Karla Black, Michel Blazy, Renata Boero, Dove Bradshaw, Victor Brauner, Dora Budor, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Nina Canell, Leonora Carrington, Giulia Cenci, Tony Conrad, Tania Pérez Córdova, Lisa Dalfino & Sacha Kanah, Giorgio de Chirico, Edith Dekyndt, Marcel Duchamp, Olafur Eliasson, Leandro Erlich, Max Ernst, Joana Escoval, Cerith Wyn Evans, Lars Fredrikson, Loïe Fuller, Cyprien Gaillard, Pinot Gallizio, Hans Haacke, Roger Hiorns, Rebecca Horn, Roni Horn, Paolo Icaro, Bruno Jakob, Yves Klein, Gary Kuehn, Liliane Lijn, Gordon Matta-Clark, David Medalla, Ana Mendieta, Otobong Nkanga, Jorge Peris, Otto Piene, Man Ray, Pamela Rosenkranz, Mika Rottenberg, Namsal Siedlecki, Roman Signer, Robert Smithson, Gerda Steiner & Jörg Lenzlinger, Yves Tanguy, Wolfgang Tillmans, Erika Verzutti, Andy Warhol.

Photo: Michel Blazy, Fleurs de bain moussant (2020)

From Yves Klein to Wolfgang Tillmans, an exhibition in Bergamo on the transformations of matter

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