LABS Contemporary Art and 22.48 m2 are pleased to present an exchange project between the cities of Paris and Bologna. The initiative stems from the desire of Alessandro Luppi and Rosario Caltabiano, to foster the vision and research of their artists and to expand their networks by presenting unpublished projects designed specifically for exhibition spaces.

Giulia Marchi and Marco Emmanuele will present the ‘Puntinismo’’ project hosted by the Parisian gallery and opening on Saturday, March 3, 2024.
Cécile Beau, Nicolas Boulard, Jean-Baptiste Caron and Charlotte Charbonnel will present, ‘‘Metamorfosi’’ which will open on Saturday, March 16, 2024 at LABS Contemporary Art gallery in Bologna.

 

The relationship between man, matter and the environment has always inspired artistic, scientific and philosophical imagination. The ‘intimate entanglement with materiality and its many forms defines our relationship with the world around us. Various artistic practices, straddling art and science, reveal to us that matter and its alteration are not only physical phenomena, but also the bearers of a dreamlike power that accompanies us toward a deeper understanding of ourselves and our contemporary world.
For the exhibition «Perma-morphosis: one state after another,» the diversified practices of the four French artists Cécile Beau, Nicolas Boulard, Jean-Baptiste Caron and Charlotte Charbonnel find a meeting point in the observation of nature and the human gaze on it.

The selected works constitute a protean landscape that investigates the power of nature in its fragmentary nature and through its perpetual state of transformation. By examining the results of chemical, physical or geological phenomena, one will thus have the opportunity to deconstruct the simplistic reading of a nature only and exclusively sublimated or demonized.

Through micro-ecosystems (living, extinct or imagined) and meticulous interventions on matter, the artists investigate the essence of the identity of the living world: the incessant movement of universal transformation. These metamorphic processes triggered in the works are discreet, silent or even invisible, contrasting with the violence of the transformations undergone by nature, as witnessed by the unprecedented floods that hit the province of Bologna and the entire Emilia-Romagna region last year.

In an era of irreversible climatic changes and increasingly rapid technological and social evolutions, reflecting on the notion of metamorphosis intrinsic to nature (with or without human intervention) becomes fundamental to understanding contemporaneity and facing the continuous changes of the future with a new perspective.
The exhibition, hosted by the Parisian gallery 22.48 m2 in the LABS Gallery space in Bologna, is the result of a friendship and collaboration that aims to unite and mutually stimulate two geographically close yet different art scenes. In parallel, during the same period, LABS Gallery will present an exhibition at the French gallery, highlighting Italian artists still little known in France.

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