Museum Susch I: The site-specific...
10:48 a.m.
20/03/19 - On Jan. 2, art collector Grazyna Kulczyk opened a new venue to exhibit part of her collection but also other artists. This new institution, known as Muzeum Susch, used to be a Monastery built into a mountain in Switzerland. Susch is an antique town which, in the Middle Ages, became a resting stop to the pilgrims traveling from Rome to Santiago de Compostela.
This space, which still keeps its natural water springs, arcades and low roofs, displays a contemporary art collection in which female artists have the spotlight. The caves and praying rooms of the former Monastery were kept to house the site-specific that are not part of the opening exhibition.
From "The Theater of Disappearance XXXI", by Adrián Villar Rojas (2018)
Mixed technique
Dreams in Black I, Dreams in Black II, by Izabella Gustowska (1992 & 1994)
Mixed technique on canvas
Flock I, by Magdalena Abakanowicz (1990)
burlap and resin
Inn Reverse, de Sara Masüger (2018)
Materials: crystal, iron, sisal, wood
Stairs, by Monika Sosnowska ( 2016, 2017)
Material: painted steel
Herrenzimmer, by Heidi Bucher (1977-1979)
Materials: textiles, latex, mother of pearl pigments
Painkillers, by Joanna Rajkowska (2014-17)
Materials: powdered analgesic, resin
These artworks, encapsulated in the natural architectonic openings, all have in common the exploration of materials barely used in art.
Argentine artist Villar Rojas presents a piece that makes reference both to the past and the present, using permanent and ephemeral objects, placed in some sort of tower, that will react to the test of time.
Probably the most interesting installation/site-specific is that of Magdalena Abakanowicz because it can be directly linked to the spirituality associated to this museum. It’s made of fiber, but worked in such a way that the material becomes an artwork in itself. The cave is occupied by a series of (almost realistic) sculptures of fragmented bodies. Headless torsos seem to be everywhere, as a multiplying physical presence, yet remaining anonymous.
The space left by the stairs leading to the second floor allows us to see a long fragmented ladder by Monika Sosnowska. These are shapes we are used to see in her, using materials from the massive destruction of post-war Poland. The ladder that leads to nowhere has lost its original function and now, as a snake, descends from the ceiling to the lower floor.
(To be continued...)
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