stir world : Shilpa Gupta and Marisa Merz redefine ways of seeing and feeling (by Urvi Kothari)

A sensorial dialogue on the visible and the invisible through a non-obvious juxtaposition of artworks by Marisa Merz and Shilpa Gupta at the MAXXI L'Aquila.

Palazzo Ardinghelli, headquarters of MAXXI L'Aquila, facadeImage: Andrea Jemolo, Courtesy of Fondazione MAXXI

"The invisible is the outline and the depth of the visible," Maurice Merleau-Ponty, French philosopher.

What is your take on their being a Western notion of seeing and an Eastern notion of feeling? Transcending long-established conventions, we stand in a day and age of re-exploring the proposition of the many ways of seeing. In an attempt to encourage a wave of deeper introspection on this topic, two worlds, two histories, and two eras meet for the exhibition visibleinvisible, curated within the Baroque rooms of Palazzo Ardinghelli at the famous MAXXI L'Aquila museum in city of L'Aquila, Italy. The exhibit celebrates two artists—Marisa Merz and Shilpa Gupta—born 50 years apart in two distinct places, Italy and India, respectively. Under the artistic direction of Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and Fanny Borel, this art exhibition breathes new life into the idea of perspective and meaning-making.

Light Is Being, 2017-2023, Neon light installation, Shilpa GuptaImage: Courtesy of Fondazione MAXXI

Inspired by Maurice Merleau-Ponty's famous unfinished text The Visible and the Invisible, which was published posthumously in 1964, this show features around 50 works by Merz and Gupta, establishing a dialogue suspended in time and space. “A lot of writers, artists, journalists, and others speak of ‘making visible’—be it inner psychological feelings or say, an event, an incident. This offers a sense of journey in the unfolding of what may not be visible, and a sense of marvel—which new learnings offer. It is a concept that holds infinite potential, with infinite layers to peel," Gupta shares. "In the context of this exhibition, the curators approach the notion of the invisible by gently focusing on 'process and act of making' by weaving two seemingly different, non-obvious practices together to create a sensorial experience. Their proposition touches the nerve—not of 'what' is being spoken, but of 'how' it is being spoken. This has been quite remarkable!”

Light Is Being, 2017-2023, Neon light installation, Shilpa GuptaImage: Courtesy of Fondazione MAXXI

The show focuses on stimulating the senses. The curators start this sensorial immersion with Gupta’s neon light installation titled Light is Being. Almost like a halo of light, this installation sets the tone for viewers. The next piece is an encounter with a small sculpture of a head by Merz surrounded by a very fragile, soft-clay material. This unexpected juxtaposition conveys a certain slowness and hesitation that is evidently visible across the exhibition. These are dialogues about processes that this duo demonstrates—it feels like a grand culmination of two retrospectives.

Another work in the exhibition, titled Stone and Bulb, shows the balancing act of a light bulb with a small piece of rock as it eerily suspends on an electrical wire. The work is discomforting, evoking a fear of losing this therapeutic balance. Gupta presents more uncommon visuals—small glass bottles with one-line poems trapped within an encasement; everyday found objects wrapped in linen; borderland rocks colliding into each other; a human eye printed on a small piece of glass; to name a few.

Untitled (Spoken poem in a bottle), Shilpa GuptaImage: Jens Ziehe, Courtesy of Galleria Continua

While interacting with Stone and Bulb, I ask Gupta about her take on the established conventions of ways of seeing. “I feel each one is free to interpret how they imagine the 'elsewhere'. How you read and interpret is intertwined by history, location, imagination, and distance. Exhibitions are propositions of ways of seeing, which nudge general visitors into zones they may or may not have considered," she says. “For someone like me who has grown up in a traditional joint family (where multiple generations live together) and went to art school in the post-liberalisation, fast-changing Bombay in 1990s, I have experienced both sides (of seeing and feeling)."

Installation view of visibleinvisible, 2023, Marisa Merz and Shilpa GuptaImage: Courtesy of Fondazione MAXXI

The curation also brings to the fore a play on the idea of 'border'. For Merz, the border is intimate and domestic, while Gupta’s concept expands into a political, socio-collective sphere. A large part of Merz’s practice emerges from her home studio where everyday materials find a way into her works. The use of found objects is also an underlying practice common to Gupta’s art. "The (objects) are those found in transit zones—stamps, marking tapes, information display boards, confiscated objects, and microphones. They emerge from my interest in lines and limits, be it of the body and/or speech," Gupta adds.

During my conversation with Gupta, she recollected an artwork conceptualised on 100 hand-drawn maps of India that started off as a very intimate experience with just a notebook and a pen. Speaking nostalgically about how life takes one to certain places at certain times, she recalls finding herself immersed in uncomfortable and unresolved post-partition moments of tension experienced at the borderlands of Kashmir. “These histories were not very ‘visiblised’ while growing up in Bombay," she comments.

I Will Die, 2012, Print on a mirror and embroidered curtain on metal rode, Shilpa GuptaImage: Elad Sarig, Courtesy of Galleria Continua

Lastly, the ultimate invisible—death—is depicted in Gupta’s memento mori. While the curtains rise on the artistic revelations of Merz and Gupta’s work, viewers are invited to draw the ultimate curtains of reality. One finds oneself in front of two red velvet curtains embroidered in gold with the words “I” and “will” concealing a mirror that says “die”. This piece is an invitation to think about the precarious, transient nature of life and shares the space with Merz’s work titled Fontana-an electrically pumped fountain, symbolising life. This juxtaposition leaves the viewers contemplating the universal ideas of life and death, creation and destruction. 

Installation view of visibleinvisible, Mixed media, 2023, Marisa Merz and Shilpa GuptaVideo: Courtesy of Fondazione MAXXI

This exhibition introduces many dichotomous ways of seeing, feeling, and being: the intimate and the distant, the fear and the curious, the apparent and the obscure, the real and the imaginary, the infinite and the infinitesimal, the fragile and the robust. The exhibition focuses on the art of perceiving within a particular moment.  This moment is intimate, instinctive, and introspective.

Article published on https://www.stirworld.com