The Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation hosts Silent Studio, a comprehensive and, for the first time in Italy, institutionalized reflection on the work of Mark Manders. This exhibition, designed as an immersive journey, intertwines newly created works with a significant selection of pieces spanning over three decades.

Manders has secured a prominent place in the global art scene thanks to a sculptural language that continually challenges the boundaries of thought and matter. At the heart of his practice lies a complex dialogue between language, three-dimensionality, and fiction, developed within his ongoing project, Self-Portrait as a Building. Begun in 1986, this evolving process explores sculpture as a narrative vehicle and an expansion of the self-portrait concept, detached from autobiographical dimensions and delving into conceptual and imaginative realms. Here, each work becomes a "visual word," while exhibitions serve as "rooms" in a mental structure—a perpetually transforming reflection of artistic identity.

The core of Silent Studio is Manders' creative space itself: a place that exists both physically and as a mental construct, overlapping with the minimal spaces of the Foundation. Over twenty works—including sculptures, installations, and objects in bronze, steel, iron, paper, and paint—interact to evoke fragility and transience. Illusion reigns supreme: solid materials like bronze are crafted to deceive the eye, appearing as fragile as clay, conveying a sense of instability that amplifies the tension between strength and precariousness.

Manders' works defy linear time: shaped over years or even decades, they seem to hover in a timeless dimension where past and present blend seamlessly. The artist subverts linguistic order to reveal the inherent polysemy of sculpture, resisting singular interpretations. The exhibition thus becomes an invitation to immerse oneself in a complex and plastic imaginary, where fiction transforms into tangible reality.

Bronze simulating fragility, apparent incompleteness, and a silent dialogue with time: each piece becomes a fragment of an unbroken discourse, a study of persistence and becoming. Silent Studio is not just an exhibition but a lens through which to grasp the intensity of Manders’ creative process—a mosaic that never fully resolves yet captivates and provokes reflection precisely because of its incompleteness.

The exhibition celebrates the long-standing relationship between Mark Manders and the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, which began with the artist’s participation in Guarene Arte 97 with the work Fox/Mouse/Belt (1992), included in this exhibition. On that occasion in 1997, Manders received the Piemonte Region Award for his Self-Portrait as a Building project.

Mark Manders (born in 1968 in Volkel, Netherlands; lives and works in Ronse, Belgium) has won the Philip Morris Art Prize (2002) and the prestigious Dr. A.H. Heineken Prize for Art (2010). He has been featured in retrospectives such as The Absence of Mark Manders at Kunstverein Hannover; S.M.A.K., Ghent; Kunsthaus Zurich; and Bergen Kunsthall (2007–2009), as well as Parallel Occurrences / Documented Assignments at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas (2010–2012). Other notable solo exhibitions include presentations at Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia (2014); Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, Santiago de Compostela (2014); Carré d'Art - Musée d’art contemporain, Nîmes (2012); Carrillo Gil Museum of Art, Mexico City (2011); and La Casa Luis Barragán, Mexico City (2011). In 2013, Manders represented the Netherlands at the Venice Biennale; he was also included in the Ateliers de Rennes (2016), the Athens Biennale (2007), Manifesta (2004), and the Venice Biennale (2001). His works have been exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum, New York; MoMA, New York; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; ICA, Philadelphia; The Art Institute of Chicago; Louvre, Paris; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; and Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, among others. His works are part of the permanent collections of The Art Institute of Chicago; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; MoMA, New York; MoCA, Los Angeles; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich; Kunsthaus Zurich; and the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Foundation, among others.

Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. Torino
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Mark Manders: Silent Studio Fino al 16 marzo 2025