of the substance of things

In this final phase, space is no longer merely a place to traverse, and time is no longer a succession of events. The coordinates that guided the journey up to this point seem to dissolve, giving way to a suspended dimension where the relationship between body, matter, and what transcends them takes center stage. It is precisely from this transformation that the question regarding the substance of things arises: what makes something present, tangible, and real, and what endures even when its material substance seems to vanish? Giorgia Guaglianone’s works unfold around the memory of a lost sky. In Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au—”I am the river, the river is me”—an ancient Māori saying serves as the starting point for a reflection on the relationship between the individual, the environment, and a sense of belonging. The sky—once a constant presence along the journey—gradually becomes something to be sought out: a reality that persists in memory precisely through its absence. Tall, cylindrical structures, permeated by chromatic glazes, thus position themselves at the intersection of painting, installation, and spatial art. They are not merely images of a sky, but places to walk through. The viewer is invited to move among these presences and engage with their own experience of space, loss, and memory. In In Search of the Lost Sky, the project expands this inquiry through photography and video, transforming the lost sky into a metaphor for the bond between the self and circumstance—between the individual and the place that holds them. While in the previous instance it is the landscape that becomes memory and absence, in Elisa Pini’s work, the body itself becomes the site of transcendence. Her practice begins with the concept of bodily lightness, challenging the traditional dichotomy between matter and spirit. The body—seemingly heavy and earthbound—is progressively lightened: figures become ethereal, semi-transparent, and seemingly suspended, while their textures retain a dimension that remains tangible and concrete. Matter is not erased but transformed into the immaterial; indeed, it continues to retain a physicality of its own. For this exhibition, it also opens up to the realm of the sacred and the transcendent. Bodies, gestures, and images associated with prayer and spiritual iconography become instruments for exploring the relationship between human physicality and what is perceived as lying beyond one’s material dimension. Nature itself—often present as a supporting or relational element—sheds its ordinary substance and appears to share in the very essence of the bodies.