Rome, June 20, 2024. *Louise Bourgeois. The Unconscious of Memory* is the first exhibition dedicated to a contemporary female artist at the Galleria Borghese and the first Roman exhibition of the Franco-American artist, one of the most influential of the last century.

Conceived by Cloé Perrone and curated with Geraldine Leardi and Philip Larratt-Smith, the exhibition, realized in collaboration with The Easton Foundation and the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici, focuses on Bourgeois' significant contributions to sculpture and the profound connection between her artistic practice and the Galleria Borghese.

*Louise Bourgeois. The Unconscious of Memory* intertwines the artist's personal memory with the collective memory of the public museum: the exhibition path traverses several rooms of the museum, the Uccelliera pavilion, and the Giardino della Meridiana—places that Louise Bourgeois had explored with admiration during her first visit to Rome in 1967. About 20 sculptural works, engaging with the unique architecture of the Casino Borghese and its collection, are centered on themes of metamorphosis, memory, and the expression of emotional and psychological states. These themes, also explored by the artists of the Borghese collection, are invigorated by Bourgeois' contemporary lens, offering new perspectives on the human experience, thanks to her extraordinary diversity of forms, materials, and scales, which allowed her to express a range of emotional states.

Louise Bourgeois' artistic journey (1911, Paris - 2010, New York), spanning seven decades, significantly advanced critical discussions on contemporary art, incorporating themes of psychoanalysis and feminism that have since become central. In the 1960s, after a period of intense psychoanalysis, she began working with biomorphic forms, experimenting with latex, plaster, wax, and other materials. In the early 1990s, she presented her first group of Cells, autonomous structures, some resembling rooms, composed of sculpted elements, found objects, and items preserved over her lifetime. The works created with fabrics are from the last decade of her career.

Her relationship with Italy and the Borghese collections significantly influenced her creative practice. The encounter with the Borghese collection began with her art history studies at the Louvre in the late 1930s and deepened between 1967 and 1972 with stays in Pietrasanta, Carrara, and other cities in the region, working in various studios and creating numerous works in bronze and marble. A decade later, she resumed frequent visits to Italy, producing other sculptures between 1981 and 1991.

The theme of metamorphosis, central to her work, develops through *Janus Fleuri*, *Topiary*, and *Passage Dangereux*. The symmetrical and ambiguous suspended form of *Janus Fleuri* faces two directions and refers to the Roman deity who simultaneously looks to the past and the future, symbolizing beginnings and transitions. *Topiary* reflects organic growth and the developmental stages of a *jeune fille en fleur*, embodying the natural and personal transformations from youth to maturity. Similarly, *Passage Dangereux*, Bourgeois' largest Cell, exhibited here in the Salone del Lanfranco, encapsulates the journey of a girl transitioning from childhood innocence to womanhood.

Bourgeois' Cells are a series of room-sized enclosures containing found objects and sculpted forms that explore themes of memory, desire, architecture, and the five senses. By creating her own architecture, Bourgeois developed an autonomous form that allowed her to stage complex orchestrations of motifs and symbols that blend past and present, ready to be seen, shared, experienced, and preserved, just as the Galleria Borghese was for Scipione Borghese.

In *Cell (The Last Climb)*, the penultimate Cell by Louise Bourgeois, which opens the exhibition path in the center of the Entrance Hall, the spiral motif is primary. This motif recurs throughout her work and is found in *Spiral Woman*, exhibited in the Uccelliera. The spiral staircase of *Cell (The Last Climb)* is a metaphor for the infinite cycles of life and its journey, and the blue spheres floating in space have a strong spiritual connotation.

*Cell XX (Portrait)* delves into the portraiture of emotions, presenting an intimate look at the human psyche. With its silent exchange between two heads, the Cell highlights Bourgeois' deconstruction of traditional portraiture to emphasize emotional expression and psychological depth over social status and identity, and to explore the complex tapestry of each individual's relationship with others.

Other works that address the artist's key themes are also part of the exhibition path. In the Giardino della Meridiana, *The Welcoming Hands* presents casts of the artist's hands intertwined with those of Jerry Gorovoy, her dear friend and longtime assistant, representing dependency, intimacy, and protection. The large bronze *Spider*, also housed in the Secret Gardens and a symbol of Bourgeois' mother's protective and resilient essence, contrasts with the softness of the pink marble with which the artist created works like *Jambes Enlacées*, whose delicate intertwining of legs reflects that of Paolina Borghese's ankles in Room I, and again in *Untitled (No. 7)*, where two pairs of hands clasp in solidarity and a small house symbolizes refuge and protection. Both these works fragment and transform the body, revealing deeper and more nuanced relationships through the act of physical redefinition.

In the Sala degli Imperatori, we find a series of Bourgeois' fabric heads displayed alongside busts of Caesars and illustrious men in porphyry and oriental alabaster. In these rooms, the artist's works create a disorienting effect compared to the busts. With their vacant orbits or half-open mouths, these sculptures are made from tapestry scraps with floral or geometric patterns supported by an aluminum structure, generating a stark contrast with the vigor and material luxury of the Caesars.

"The exhibition on Louise Bourgeois, from the title itself, pursues two very significant aspects of the artist's journey: the unconscious and memory. At the Galleria Borghese, the preservation of the memory of its founding collector, Scipione Borghese, is central to us, and all the works he collected tell his story, which has become the history of one of the most important museums in the world. The individual works preserve the memory of their authors and their lives, sometimes even their hidden portraits, as in the case of Lavinia Fontana's *Minerva*, an artist who, in the early 1600s, used mythology as her mirror. Bourgeois, on the other hand, seems not to hide but to expose herself as much as possible, trying to recount even her unconscious, the levels of consciousness that are difficult to articulate. In this continuous interplay between personal and collective memory, between mirrors and cages, lies the aesthetic power of the exhibition, which, thanks to the works of the great twentieth-century sculptor, enacts the *mise en abyme* of the Borghese collection," says Francesca Cappelletti, Director of the Galleria Borghese.

With the exhibition *Louise Bourgeois. The Unconscious of Memory*, the Galleria Borghese confirms the importance of the relationship between ancient and contemporary art, becoming a meeting and dialogue place between Masters of different eras and origins. Today's contemporary installations reaffirm and update what the Gallery embodied for Scipione Borghese: a treasure chest of personal treasures and a place to preserve a legacy that must constantly be renewed, fostering new interpretations of its history and the history of art.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog that includes images of Bourgeois' works contextualized within the Galleria and a brief guide. Both publications are published by Marsilio Arte.

On the occasion of the exhibition, the French Academy in Rome – Villa Medici is also hosting a work by the artist, installed in the Salon de Lecture: *No Exit*, an installation consisting of a staircase flanked by panels and two large spheres at its base. Hanging from the staircase are two rubber heart-shaped forms, elements well hidden and can be peeked through a small door behind the structure.

The exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of FENDI, the official sponsor of the exhibition.

The program of events accompanying the exhibition, titled *Existing as a Woman*, is organized by Electa.

Hospitality partner of the exhibition: Hotel Eden, Dorchester Collection.

BIOGRAPHY

Louise Bourgeois

Louise Bourgeois (born in Paris in 1911, died in New York in 2010) is one of the most influential artists of the last century. Although she worked in various fields over her 70-year career—performance, painting, and printmaking—she is best known as a sculptor.

Her sculptures, made of various materials, are both delicate and menacing, referring to her traumas and childhood, and exploring complex themes such as gender, family relationships, and sexuality. *Destruction of the Father* (1974) is one of her best-known works, inspired by her childhood memories and her father's authoritarian attitude.

In the late 1940s, Bourgeois moved to New York, where she began making the totemic sculptures that would later become a hallmark of her work, with forms that evoke both the human body and architectural elements.

Throughout her life, Bourgeois produced a wide range of works, from her monumental *Spider* sculptures to small, intimate pieces like the *Cells* series, autobiographical works that explore themes such as pain, memory, and emotional instability. She also used various materials, such as fabric, glass, wood, and bronze.

Bourgeois' work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions worldwide, including retrospectives at the Tate Modern in London, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

*Louise Bourgeois. The Unconscious of Memory* is her first major exhibition in Rome.