from kimsooja to nanda vigo, MAXXI museum honors women artists in new immersive show

AMBIENTI 1956 – 2010. Environments by Women Artists II

AMBIENTI 1956 – 2010. Environments by Women Artists II is an exhibition developed by Italy’s MAXXI museum and Haus der Kunst in Munich. It represents the next chapter of Inside Other Spaces: Environments by Women Artists 1956–1976, a project conceived by the German museum in 2023, which focuses on women’s fundamental contribution to the history of what is considered the least explored forms of artistic expression; at the crossroads of art, architecture and design, these environments are three-dimensional and immersive works, activated by the audience’s interaction and completed by human presence. The exhibition at MAXXI continues this research and expands its original timeline to 2010, the year the Zaha Hadid-designed Museum was completed. In this second chapter, Judy Chicago, Lygia Clark, Laura Grisi, Aleksandra Kasuba, Léa Lublin, Marta Minujín, Tania Mouraud, Nanda Vigo and Tsuruko Yamazaki are joined by Micol Assaël, Monica Bonvicini, Zaha Hadid, Kimsooja, Christina Kubisch, Nalini Malani, Pipilotti Rist, Martha Rosler and Esther Stocker.

Aleksandra Kasuba, A Spectral Passage, 1975 – 2023 | image © Giorgio Benni

from kimsooja to nanda vigo – inside maxxi’s major exhibition

Curated by Andrea Lissoni, Marina Pugliese, and Francesco Stocchi, AMBIENTI 1956 – 2010 at MAXXI (see more here) welcomes the visitor in Piazza Alighiero Boetti where Monica Bonvicini‘s artwork, Don’t Miss a Sec, invites the audience to reflect on the boundary between public and private. To the left the museum, designed by Zaha Hadid, is effectively part of the exhibition as both an envelope and an environment. Several possible entrances lead to the exhibition, which occupies the entire first floor of MAXXI. The first is the staircase rising from the hall, directing the gaze towards the succession of environmental works, starting with Tsuruko Yamazaki’s Red (Forma di una zanzariera), consisting of a suspended red vinyl tent reminiscent of traditional mosquito nets used in Japan. On the following terrace, Martha Rosler‘s work, If You Lived Here…, highlights urgent social issues such as housing emergencies.

Aleksandra Kasuba, A Spectral Passage, 1975 – 2023 | image © Giorgio Benni

On the third terrace, A casa é o corpo by Lygia Clark is a sensory journey that goes through the experiences of conception and birth. Nalini Malani‘s first participatory installation, Alleyway, Lohar Chawl, compares the working-class neighborhood of Lohar Chawl, where the artist lives and works, with the upscale and trendy neighborhood of South Mumbai. The Bird Tree, an important sound installation by Christina Kubisch, is a large tree made of electrical cables that allows listeners to hear bird songs from around the world. With To Breathe – in the glazed portion of the gallery – Kimsooja makes light and reflection essential components of the space.

Continuing into Gallery 2, visitors encounter Ambiente spaziale: ‘Utopie’ nella XIII Triennale di Milano created by Lucio Fontana and Nanda Vigo – a relaxing space where the visitor can lie down, enveloped in a soft dreamlike space – and Ambiente cronotopico vivibile, where the visitor’s image multiplies infinitely. Laura Grisi’s artwork Vento di s.e. velocità 40 nodi surprises the visitor with a strong sudden airflow. Léa Lublin‘s Penetración / Expulsión addresses the theme of human reproduction through various elements, including a tunnel resembling an umbilical cord. In Micol Assaël’s Sleeplessness, the visitor is forced to ponder in the dimness of an empty and cold environment. Conversely, in the area behind the elevator, Tania Mouraud‘s steel tower We used to know emits ultrasound and infrasound; it is illuminated and heated up to 45 degrees.

Aleksandra Kasuba, A Spectral Passage, 1975 – 2023 | image © Giorgio Benni

At the exit, Judy Chicago‘s Feather Room fills the space with nearly 150 kilograms of feathers, 50 centimetres high. At the exit of the elevator in Gallery 4, another possible entrance to the exhibition, Esther Stocker‘s first environmental artwork created in 2004, Il termine ‘affine’ attrae la nostra attenzione anche se in realtà non significa nulla, expands into space, taking up the floor, the walls, and the ceiling. Alexandra Kasuba‘s monumental artwork Spectral Passage offers the viewers the opportunity to enter a rainbow. To its left, the inclined floor leads to Sip My Ocean, Pipilotti Rist‘s video environment featuring underwater bodies, shapes, and objects, doubling and drifting away before reassembling and disappearing into the gap between the two walls. Moving on towards the Foyer at the entrance of Gallery 3, in Marta Minujín‘s environment ¡Revuélquese y viva!, hand-painted mattresses of various shapes resonate with the timeless hits of the Beatles.

Nanda Vigo, Ambiente Cronotopico, 1967 – 2003 | image © Giorgio Benni

beyond the exhibition

AMBIENTI 1956 – 2010. Environments by Women Artists is enriched by Ambiènte Archìvio, an in-depth exploration created by the MAXXI Art Archives Center, which narrates the evolution of spatial research through the various interpretations of the term ‘environment’ from 1949 to 2010. Accompanying the exhibition is a program of performances held within its spaces, a packed schedule of meetings, and film screenings designed to reflect on the concept of environment and how it has been interpreted over time by different generations of artists. Furthermore, the museum dedicates exploration-visits for nurseries, primary and secondary schools, as well as weekend activities for families with children aged 5 to 10, and a cultural mediation service. In an exhibition where participation and engagement of audiences are central themes, numerous projects are accessible, multisensory, and welcoming.

For the occasion, a catalog edited by Quodlibet has been produced, bringing together essays, a conversation on the theme of environments from 1956 to 1976, a visual chronology, a comprehensive section of apparatuses including a list of exhibitions and specific bibliography, as well as critical notes on the exhibited works. Running until October 20, 2024, The current show is the first major one of 2024 to take place at the MAXXI, chaired by Alessandro Giuli, in Francesco Stocchi’s first year as Artistic Director.