An idyllic micro-universe is recreated in the all-azure interior of the gallery with primordial objects, elementary architectures and ornaments.

With this eclectic environment composed of new works by international and Italian artists, Margherita Ratti honors the universe of Frida Kahlo's Casa Azul in Mexico City.

Between the everyday and the ceremonial, between action and contemplation, the gathered works, impregnated with vegetal and animal evocations, invite to a sensorial experience. An aesthetic journey that celebrates the materiality of these contemporary works, handmade from natural materials, that seem ancient. 

The public is invited to walk among the animated bestiaries and wool tapestries by Célia Picard & Hannes Schreckenberger, the stone walls made of paper by the very young Michelangelo Menu, the symbolic ceramics by MARə, the ornamental tapestry and the stools with precious stones by the duo JN. Mellor Club.

The tapestries are more than just decorative elements, they are protective envelopes, reminiscent of elemental architecture. Mystic symbols of animals, plants and cosmological constellations adorn these non-woven fabrics. Each one is like a protective talisman. The symbols are inspired by oracular decorations discovered in Greece on historical embroidered textiles, ancient ceramics and vernacular architecture.

The bestiary, a new project specially designed for the exhibition, is inspired by popular myths and architectural elements from the Middle Ages, an interweaving of plants, animals and humans. 

On the floor are four vintage stools in galvanized metal whose seat has been replaced by a weaving of Swarovski crystal beads, glass beads, woven brass chain, and small wedges in pebbles covered with leather. With this set of old-fashioned stools, JN. Mellor Club (French duo Karine Arabian and Franck Blais) continues its research into the porosity between the useful and the futile, seeking poetry in the interstices of everyday life and creating small objects of delicate and iconoclastic richness.

“Dry Stone Wall” by Michelangelo Menu, acts on the main wall by enclosing the classic exhibition space in its center, as if to delimit a property. This work is part of the “Study for Enclosures” series: a research around different construction elements that mainly aim to delimit a space. Composed of a set of embossed prints on paper, the work reproduces the vividness, monochrome and repetitiveness of stones.

"Te doy mi universo”. Frida Kahlo