Mark Manders at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo: Silent Studio, a sculptural immersion

In Turin, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo presents Silent Studio, the first Italian anthological exhibition of Dutch artist Mark Manders (Volkel, 1968), curated by Bernardo Follini. Opening on October 31 and open until March 15, 2025, the exhibition is an opportunity to explore the artistic career of Manders, who is famous for his enigmatic sculptures and his conceptual reflection on the very nature of art. The installation includes a selection of works, some of them previously unseen, spanning more than 30 years of artistic production, offering the public an immersion in an environment conceived especially for the Foundation, where physical and mental space come together in a representation of the author’s poetics.

Mark Manders has built an international career as an innovative sculptor whose language moves between figurative art and conceptual abstraction. His artistic research is driven by continuous experimentation with materials and forms, which challenge the temporal and material perception of the viewer. At the heart of Silent Studio we find Self-Portrait as Building, a long-term project begun in 1986 that forms the core of his production. In this work, Manders develops a concept of self-portrait that goes beyond biographical or literal representation, configuring itself rather as an imaginary construction of identity and meaning. The works represent not just objects in a space, but “visual words” that make up the “rooms” of a fictional building, a metaphor for the complex relationship between identity and narrative.

A dialogue between matter and time

Within the exhibition, visitors are invited to explore Manders’ studio, a space that is both real and mental, where the boundaries between subjectivity and objectivity dissolve. More than twenty works are distributed throughout the exhibition space, made from materials such as bronze, steel, iron, as well as paper and pictorial pigments. In this combination of elements, Manders plays with the effect of apparent transience and vulnerability. His sculptures, in fact, have the appearance of fragile creations, as if they were molded from fresh clay, but they conceal a resistant structure, often made of bronze and other solid materials, that challenge the idea of stability and durability.

Time is an essential element in Manders’ artistic production. Some of the works in the exhibition took years, if not decades, to complete, and the result is a time compression that dilutes their perception, as if they belong to an indefinite past or a suspended present. Manders subverts linear language, creating works that escape precise chronology and open a complex semantic dialogue, where interpretation is left to the viewer’s sensibility. In this context, sculpture becomes a mutable and layered narrative, capable of offering new meanings each time to those who confront it.

A return and a celebration

The Silent Studio exhibition also celebrates the long and fruitful relationship between the artist and Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. The collaboration dates back to 1997, when Manders participated in the Guarene Arte 97 exhibition with the work Fox/Mouse/Belt (1992), one of the works that now finds a place inside Silent Studio. It was on that occasion that Manders received the Regione Piemonte Prize, thanks to the project Self-Portrait as Building, an award that marked the beginning of an important dialogue between the artist and the Turin-based foundation.

Born in 1968 in Volkel, Netherlands, Manders now lives and works in Ronse, Belgium, and his fame has crossed European borders. His many awards include the prestigious Philip Morris Art Prize (2002) and the Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for Art (2010), an important tribute to his career as an experimenter and innovator. Over the years, his works have been featured in exhibitions at leading museums and institutions, including the Kunstverein in Hanover, the S.M.A.K. in Ghent, the Kunsthaus in Zurich, and the Bergen Kunsthall in Norway, as well as theHammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Dallas Museum of Art.

One of the most significant milestones in his career was his participation in the Venice Biennale in 2013, representing the Netherlands. His presence in major international art events also extends to the Athens Biennale (2007), Manifesta (2004) and his first participation in the Venice Biennale in 2001. His works are exhibited in permanent collections of renowned museums such as MoMA and the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, as well as in numerous other museums and galleries around the world.

Mark Manders at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo: Silent Studio, a sculptural immersion

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