ART CITIES: Paris-D’ici à l’infini

The group exhibition “D’ici à l’infini” brings together four major European artists for the first time: Giovanni Anselmo, Lothar Baumgarten, Marisa Merz and Ettore Spalletti. Through their respective oeuvre, they all defied the formal conventions of visual arts and developed a profound and conceptual practice focused on our relationship with nature and the universe.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Marian Goodman Gallery

The works in the exhibition “D’ici à l’infini” (wood, paper, granite, earth, clay, impasto, alabaster) not only convey a sense of tangible reality, but they also instill a sense of boundless time and space. They exist as a coherent reality, independent of reality itself, allowing viewers to mentally project themselves beyond the exhibition space. The title of the exhibition is taken from Anne Rorimer’s essay “Giovanni Anselmo: From here to infinity, 1965 – 2015” published in the exhibition catalogue of the artist at Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Torino in 2016. Giovanni Anselmo’s notable interest in the force of gravity and energy of the Earth, in our connection with the cosmos, dates back to an August day in 1965 when, after climbing to the top of Mount Stromboli, he had a searing observation of his own shadow projected towards ‘infinity.’ This seminal experience has infused his practice to this day. “Il sentiero verso oltremare” (1992-2023) consists of a path of earth traced on the floor that connects two vertical stripes of ultramarine paint applied on two opposing walls. The blue pigment, originally sourced from imported lapis lazuli, signifies a window to a distant horizon. In keeping with his practice of associating several old pieces, Giovanni Anselmo creates a new proposal by linking the path to one of his emblematic works, “Direzione” (1967-2023). Consisting of a compass embedded in a block of granite, it indicates with precision the direction of the Earth’s magnetic North Pole. While one of the projections of “Particolare” (1972-2023) is oriented directly to the granite block, the other is pointed in another direction within the space, becoming visible only on furtive contact with a body or an object. The notions of visibility and infinitude are further investigated in “Particolare del lato in alto della prima I di Infinito 25.04.75” (1975), a series of graphite drawings on paper which reveal only a ‘visible and measurable detail’ of the concept of infinity, in the form of the letter i. In his multidisciplinary practice, Lothar Baumgarten referred to different systems of thought and representations, focusing on non-Western cosmogonies and cultures. Created prior to his initiatory journey to South America which involved an eighteen-month stay with the Yanõmami indigenous community in southern Venezuela, the early work “Kosmos” (1969) is composed of hazelnut wood branches and a figure of a bird in paper wrapped in a map of the constellations. Echoing his iconic film “Origin of the Night (Amazon Cosmos)”, (1973-1977) which references the myth of the origin of the night for the Tupi people, the 1969 work links terrestrial ecosystems to the immensity of space. Like his photographs from the series “Culture-Nature (Manipulated Reality)” (1968-72) as well as his ephemeral sculptural interventions all conceived at the same time in the Rhineland, “Kosmos” transports us by thought, momentarily, elsewhere.

Considering forms as fluid and fragile, Marisa Merz would reshape her earlier works in varying arrangements based on the exhibition space by employing humble materials and non-traditional techniques. The correlation between natural materials and the idea of infinity is also significant in her work, through the representation of human forms that lie between abstraction and figuration. A prominent example is “Cielo e Terra” (2005), where the artist juxtaposed a large drawing with spray paint and pastel on Japanese paper and a small clay sculpture placed on a tall tripod, as is “Untitled” (2004), a drawing with graphite, spray paint and gold pigment on paper. These feminine and enigmatic forms inhabit Merz’s work like spiritual or ghostly figures, seeming to float through time and space, and relying, in turn, on the imagination of the viewers to detach them from reality. Acclaimed for his subtle exploration of color and light, Ettore Spalletti has founded a minimal aesthetic through pictorial or sculptural works, which, when presented simultaneously, often form an immersive installation. The monochrome works “Così com’è, luna” (2018) and “Senza titolo, (grigio chiaro)” (2019) result from the unchanging process initiated by the artist in the early 1970s – the meticulous application of multiple layers of impasto at the same time of each day over the course of weeks. Like all his work, they are inspired by the landscapes of Abruzzo, the region on the Adriatic coast of Italy where the artist has lived and worked all his life. Each color recalls a specific element of the natural panorama that surrounded the artist. Whether set in alabaster in “Scatola di colore” (1991) or applied on wooden panels in “Così com’è, luna”, the colored material encloses space and time. But what is to be contemplated is not so much this materiality as the spirituality infused into the work.

Works by: Giovanni Anselmo, Lothar Baumgarten, Marisa Merz and Ettore Spalletti

Photo: Ettore Spalletti, Così com’è, luna, 2018, 2 elements; color impasto on board, gold leaf, Square: 39 3/8 x 39 3/8 x 1 5/8 in. (100 x 100 x 4 cm), Diameter: 46 7/8 x 1 5/8 in. (119 x 4 cm), Overall: 46 7/8 x 89 3/4 x 1 5/8 in. (119 x 228 x 4 cm), Courtesy Marian Goodman Gallery

Info: Marian Goodman Gallery, 79 Rue du Temple, Paris, France, Duration: 10/3-29/4/2023, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-19:00, www.mariangoodman.com/