Press Release

In collaboration with the Central State Archive, the Marie-Laure Fleisch Gallery presents two major projects by Chiara Dynys in Rome. A journey through individual and collective memory, from Italy’s Unity to today, divided into two locations: the Archive’s seat in the EUR district and the gallery in vicolo Sforza Cesarini. The two exhibitions Labirinti Di Memoria (Labyrinths of Memory), curated by Fortunato D’Amico at the Central State Archive and Più Luce Su Tutto (More Light on Everything) in the gallery, capture and contrast two aspects of our way of looking at the world: factual and ideal memory. At the Archivio Centrale dello Stato, home to Italy’s documental memory, the artist charts a labyrinthine path that leads through corridors and staircases. At the gallery, the exhibition Più Luce Su Tutto opens, for the first time in Chiara Dynys’s artistic journey, an experimental research that juxtaposes light and paper, two elements that can find each other in their common lightness. In a large installation - over 10 square meters - after whose title the exhibition is named, paper plays the lead role and is interpreted by the artist as a page in the literal meaning of the word, but also as a mental page that contains all other pages. It is a large library with 369 books made of glass, in which everyone can recognize their ideal library, their own preferences. Some books are lit from the inside and emanate light, they are literally ‘illuminated’. This work offers a glimpse of the Archive, over 120 km of shelves packed with bundles that in turn contain innumerable documents and information, tracing the shadows of a drowned Babylon, a puzzle of memory, a vision that contrasts with the artist’s in a luminous, transparent form. Il Gobbo (The Cue Card) is a work that tells about a combinatory interplay of writing, light and emotions felt by the artist, and utilizes the shape of the tool used in theaters and television studios for prompting cues. Finally, Parole Nel Vuoto (Words in the Void) is a large ‘folio’ book containing literary quotes that are back-projected on it. These words, which have accompanied Chiara Dynys throughout her life and work, take shape from drops falling on the pages of the open book. In occasion of the two exhibitions, a catalogue edited by Skira will be published. Book design Italo Lupi.

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