Trilogy of Matter I – Black Hole

The Trilogy of Matter is a major exhibition project devised by Lorenzo Giusti for GAMeC in Bergamo, dedicated to the investigation of matter in twentieth and twenty-first-century art. Launched in 2018 with Black Hole. Art and Materiality from Informal to Invisible, curated by Sara Fumagalli and Lorenzo Giusti, it recounted the specific interest of various artists in the depths of matter; it continued in 2021 with Nothing is Lost. Art and Matter in Transformation, curated by Anna Daneri and Lorenzo Giusti, proposing a reflection on matter in transformation, passages of state and ecological systems; the cycle will conclude in 2023 with the exhibition A Leap into the Void. Art Beyond Matter, curated by Lorenzo Giusti and Domenico Quaranta. The third chapter of the cycle will explore the theme of the dematerialization of art, connecting the investigations into the void initiated by the first movements of the historical avant-garde, and developed by experimental groups post-World War II, with the investigations into flux undertaken in the years of early computerization, only to be continued throughout the post-digital era with the use of new languages and simulated realities.

Activating a dialogue with the history of scientific and technological discoveries, as well as exploring the development of aesthetics theories, Black Hole showcases the work of those artists who have explored the material element’s most intrinsic significance, where the actual concept of “matter” shatters to open up a profounder idea of “matter” as an original element, as the primordial substance that constitutes everything.
In particular, the exhibition intends to narrate this dimension in three different perspectives: the first, of those who looked to the tangible, material element as a primary entity, preceding or alternative to form; second, of those who interpreted human nature as part of a broader material discourse; thirdly, of those who embarked on the penetration of matter, pushing the boundaries of materiality itself, grasping its infinitesimal and energetic dimension.
Relying on an extensive selection of artworks produced from the end of the nineteenth century to the present day, the exhibition aims to provide a single and integrated overview of this precious dialectic that shifts from the materiality of the Informal to that of the Invisible, extremes that are only superficially antithetic but in reality coexist and complement each other.

Artists: Karel Appel, Hicham Berrada, Alberto Burri, Christo, Gino De Dominicis, Evelina Domnitch & Dmitry Gelfand, Jean Dubuffet, Simone Fattal, Jean Fautrier, Urs Fischer, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Giacometti, Lydia Gifford, Cameron Jamie, Asger Jorn, Hans Josephsohn, Anish Kapoor, Anselm Kiefer, Leoncillo Leonardi, Piero Manzoni, Nicola Martini, Luca Monterastelli, Movimento Arte Nucleare (Enrico Baj, Joe Colombo, Sergio Dangelo), Gastone Novelli, Tancredi Parmeggiani, Florence Peake, Carol Rama, Milton Resnick, Auguste Rodin, Medardo Rosso, Thomas Ruff, Ryan Sullivan, Antoni Tàpies, Jol Thomson, and William Tucker.