Exhibition curated by Giovanni Giacomo Paolin
As part of SECONDA RISONANZA, running from 15 April to 7 September 2025, GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino (Turin Modern and Contemporary Art Gallery) presents Dove lo spazio chiama il segno (Where the Space Calls Forth the Sign) a major retrospective exhibition of the work of Alice Cattaneo (Milan, 1976), curated by Giovanni Giacomo Paolin.
The exhibition encapsulates several stages in the development of the artist’s practice, charting a “score” in which words such as rhythm, interruption and care are integral to the visitor experience.
The title of the exhibition was inspired by a conversation that the artist had with a master glassmaker in Murano who – to show her when and at which point to cut a specific element for one of her sculptures – suggested that she do so “where the material calls for it”. The meaning of the artisan’s words falls somewhere between the visible and the invisible, evoking certain intrinsic qualities of the material, with which it is possible to establish a certain type of relationship solely through the passing of time. The implication is that we should listen just as much to what we have in front of us as to the intuition constructed by our experience.
Within the rooms of GAM, various fragments of Alice Cattaneo’s work alternate in an exhibition atmosphere that is at once dense and subtle. The idea of a solo retrospective presented in accordance with a certain order is called into question by the essence of the artist’s works, conceived and created under a certain set of conditions that for her are in no way replicable. Titles and dates thus become almost ancillary to signs and materials such as iron, wood, glass and paper, which are infused with meaning.
From the outset, Cattaneo has embraced the lesson of anti-sculpture, working from the spatial point of view with forms and materials often interpreted in their essence, making reference both to weights and balances and to the lack thereof.
Years of work have nourished her artistic and personal experience, bolstering her ability to approach exhibition environments with a method based on ongoing exploration, and to glean an understanding of the deep significance bound up with the identification of a space dedicated to the work.
The curatorial approach adopted for the exhibition was developed through an analysis of the conditions and architectural elements of GAM’s Spazio del Contemporaneo (“Contemporary Space”): this has created a flow of works dating from previous stages of the artist’s output – reconceived and showcased anew for the occasion – that succeeds in enabling visitors to get their bearings before they make their way through a suspension generated by her latest work, created specifically for the exhibition.
“Where the Space Calls Forth the Sign” is composed of works that can be interpreted as “interruptions of thought”, gestures driven by a necessity arising out of its close relationship with the exhibition space, following a line of action in which the artist is called upon to respond in accordance with her own expressive modes,” states Giovanni Giacomo Paolin, the exhibition’s curator.
Alice Cattaneo was born in Milan in 1976. She studied Environmental Art at Glasgow School of Art and then obtain an MFA in Sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute in California.
In 2005, she exhibited her first works at the Galleria Suzy Shammah in Milan. She has staged solo shows at: the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, curated by Jonathan Watkins (2007); MADRE museum in Naples (2008); the Galerie Stadtpark in Krems, curated by David Komary (2012, 2020), the Museo del Novecento in Milan (2018); the Museo Archeologico in Acqui Terme and the Marie-Laure Fleisch Gallery in Brussels (2019); the Fondazione Elpis for Una Boccata d’Arte (2021); and the Galleria Casamadre Arte Contemporanea in Naples (2023). She has participated in group shows at various Italian and international institutions, including: MAXXI in Rome; the Villa delle Rose in Bologna for the Premio Furla, curated by Chiara Bertola and Gianfranco Maraniello; Palazzo Grassi in Venice for Italics: Italian Art between Tradition and Revolution, curated by Francesco Bonami (2008); the Musée d’Art Moderne in Saint-Etienne and the Daejeon Museum of Art in Korea (2009); the Today Art Museum in Beijing for Negotiations: The Second Today’s Documents, curated by Jonathan Watkins; the Fondazione Stelline in Milan, as part of the group show L’Elogio della Semplicità, curated by Giorgio Verzotti; the Hangar Bicocca in Milan for the exhibition Terre Vulnerabili, curated by Chiara Bertola with Andrea Lissoni (2010); the Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia and the Frankfurter Kunstverein for the exhibition Arte Essenziale, based on an idea conceived by Federico Ferrari (2011); the Guangdong Museum of Art in Guangzhou for The Unseen: The Fourth Guangzhou Triennial (2012); the Castello di Rivoli (2014); the ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe for Negative Space: Trajectories of Sculpture (2019); and the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in New Delhi, for Parallel Cities, curated by Andrea Anastasio (2024).The residency programmes she has participated in have included: Fragmented City at the Fondazione Ratti’s Artists’ Research Laboratory in Como, with Marjetica Potrč (2006); the International Studio Program in New York, thanks to the New York Prize, sponsored by the Istituto Italiano di Cultura and the Italian Academy at Columbia University (2009); and AIR – Artist in Residence, in Krems, Austria (2020).
Giovanni Giacomo Paolin (Dolo, 1989) is an independent curator who lives and works in Venice, where in 2023 he founded the Panorama project space. His practice concentrates on the creation of exhibitions that are organic forms of collaboration, with the capacity to generate new relationships. Over the years he has worked closely with public and private institutions such as the Castello di Rivoli, the Chanakya Foundation, IKSV, the Guestroom Maribor, MAXXI, La Biennale di Venezia, the Fondazione Elpis, the Fondazione Carraro, and the Fondazione In Between Art Film. His most recent projects have included: Building Resistance (2022) in Istanbul, Gwangju, Prizren and Venice, supported by the Italian Council call for submissions as organised by the Italian Ministry of Culture; All the Images Will Disappear One Day (2023), Autostrada Biennale, Prizren; Stelle che sorreggono altre stelle (2023), Fondazione Elpis, Milan; and Nebula (2024), Complesso dell'Ospedaletto, Venice. Since 2020 he has been the Veneto Region’s curator in charge for Una Boccata d'Arte. He is currently Production Coordinator for Autostrada Biennale, in Prizren, Kosovo.
