'The Tenderness of Insects' is Ludovica Gioscia’s first solo exhibition in Switzerland. Exploring a new dimension of Gioscia’s ‘Infinite Present’ ecosystem, the exhibition brings together new works in ceramic, papier-mâché, fabric and found materials that reflect the rural landscape.
The ‘Infinite Present’ is Gioscia’s modus operandi, which reflects the new temporalities that have emerged within the digital revolution. It has led to a studio practice that is constantly being reconsidered and renegotiated, in which the past, present and future in nitely coexist. As such, Gioscia describes her studio as having become “a magical location in which artworks from the future and from other dimensions appear, and past creations are de-assembled and reconsidered.”
Gioscia’s installations and sculptures have to-date explored the rich layering of cultural debris within our cities; for ‘The Tenderness of Insects’ she turned our attention to the intelligence of plants and their sophisticated ecosystems and networks of communication. Gioscia sees artworks as being alive, hence constantly evolving. Infused with a sort of animism, the creations stem from a deep enjoyment of working with materials. It therefore came naturally for her to look to the rural environment and the rich flora and fauna that surrounded her during time spent on the grounds of La Boissière, Charente, in rural southwest France on the residency, Launch Pad LaB.
The traces of the artist’s collaborations and experiments with nature over this period are woven throughout this new body of work. Perhaps most evident within her new ceramics, in which the impressions of a 200-year-old oak tree’s bark is engraved into the surface of the local produced clay, in a process which the artist describes as ‘empathic frottages’. Fragments from the environment, including petals, dried grasses, branches, and drops of vibrational remedies, such as Bach flowers, make their way into other works in papier-mâché, wallpaper and fabric, further reflecting the fields and flowers in the area through her choice of colour palette.
‘The Tenderness of Insects’ brought these new works together into a series of new site-responsive assemblages within VITRINE’s unique exhibition space located in a urban outdoor setting and viewable 24/7 from the public square. As we confront global warming, one of the most defining issues of our time, Gioscia brought the energy of a rural ecosystem into the gallery space, and more crucially the city. She encouraged us to consider plants as intelligent beings and the healing properties that accompany them, and to turn to mother nature herself for guidance.
Special thanks to Launch Pad LaB.
Dedicated to Heinz, who loved trees.
Curator: Alys Williams.
Ludovica Gioscia (born 1977, Rome) lives and works in London. She graduated with an MFA Fine Art Media from the Slade School of Art in 2004 and has been exhibiting internationally since, at galleries and institutions including: Museo della Figurina, Fondazione Modena Art Visivie, Modena, IT; La Fabbrica del Cioccolato, Blenio, CH; Creative Centre Osaka, Osaka, JP; Palazzo da Mosto, Fondazione Palazzo Magnani, Reggio Emilia, IT; MACRO, Rome, IT; Palazzo Fiano, Rome, IT; FuturDome, Milan, IT; The Warhol Foundation, Pittsburgh, US; Baert Gallery, Los Angeles, US; Salon 94, The Flag Art Foundation, Allegra LaViola, NY, US; The Miro’ Foundation, Barcelona, ES; Jerwood Space, London, UK; South London Gallery, London, UK; MNAC, Bucharest, RO; and Comfort Moderne, Poitiers, FR; Sothebys, London, UK.
Gioscia was selected for the third edition of the Launch Pad LaB Residency, France, 2019. Her work has been published in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Fluor, Exibart, Exit Express, Flash Art International, Kunstforum, Etapes International, Elephant, The End and AN. Her work is included in ‘100 Sculptors of Tomorrow’, published by Thames and Hudson.