How can we interpret human experience with a language that reaches deep? How can we convey the fragility of everything, of the universe to which we belong? Such open and fertile themes can only be addressed by pushing beyond logic, beyond rational thought, allowing ourselves to be influenced by reality and our surroundings. This is the process underlying the People I Know exhibition at LABS Contemporary Art, where, in a single space, different languages used by very different personalities coexist and dialogue surrounding the viewer.
AA.VV., “People I Know”, 2025, installation view at Labs Contemporary Art, ph. courtesy LABS Contemporary Art
In an exhibition that is at the same time installation, performance and sculpture, one perceives a strong connection with reality. This is interpreted through different languages. German artist Elisabeth Sonneck, for example, radically connects her works not only to the exhibition space, creating site-specific installations, but also fuses them with the surrounding area. Indeed, the exhibition features objects intimately connected to the aesthetic of Bologna, taken directly from the city, such as red terracotta bricks. The idea of establishing contact with reality and not forcing artistic creation is one of the most important and essential values the artist observes. Her works, created with precise and accurate layers of oil paint, although so linear as to appear mechanically crafted, are actually methodically created freehand. The living, human element can be seen in the tiny imperfections that run along the edges of the long brushstrokes, details visible only with great attention. This gesture connects the artist to the paper medium on which she works and with which she creates a dialogue, the same dialogue that can be perceived between the painted sheets and the Bolognese samples. The latter, in the work Scrollpainting144, acts as a perfect counterweight, giving the composition a balance that is both conceptual and visual. This artist’s first video work can also be seen projected, depicting the floral elements of a cemetery in a simple and unconstructed way: delicacy, care, and the intimacy of reality are the recurring themes observed throughout her works.
Finja Sander, “Passiv Aggressive IX”, 2024, transport case, glass garland, wheels, 50 x 60 x 40 cm. ph. courtesy LABS Contemporary Art
Finja Sander also explores similar themes. Many of her creations reflect on the past of Germany, her country of origin, investigating common sense and the role of memory. She also attaches great importance to caring for this legacy and reviving connections with it. Being closely linked to performance art, her works in the exhibition recall this language, as in the case of Schutzwall: a work that combines the photographic medium with elements reminiscent of performance, creating a synthesis that opens up to new meanings. The act of caring is even more evident in the work Passiv Aggressiv IX, created by reassembling a sheet of glass shattered into pieces. In this case, the broken and reassembled glass, which might seem the opposite of delicacy, actually conceals a great precision and accuracy, without which the sheet would have disintegrated. The crown shape evokes an atmosphere of sacredness, made even more evident by the recurring interest in the marks and scratches this object leaves on the plastic container. These traces, highlighted and reinterpreted in other works, speak of caring, protecting, and preserving.
Lucia Cristiani, “Mud Bath”, 2025, brown oceanic algae, ash, soap, steel spheres, 84 x 54 x 3.5 cm, ph. courtesy LABS Contemporary Art
Lucia Cristiani is certainly no less interested in these themes. Her language interprets them with great poetry, uniting organic and non-organic matter and creating syntheses in which life becomes eternal. In the work Mud Bath, ash and soap blend intimately with algae and metal spheres, composing a landscape in which the light, reflecting partly on the solidified bubbles and partly on the small metallic elements, evokes visions of lunar terrain or galaxies (even more evident in the version made with added coal, also present on the exhibition). A work more closely connected to the sphere of sacrifice is Spugna Persa (Lost Sponge). In this case, the bronze cast on the sponge not only creates the mold of the sponge but also absorbs its essence, stripping the organic object of its life and granting it eternity. Essential in this case is the idea of caring for and making the organic object eternal, recalling a connection with the whole.
AA.VV., “People I Know”, 2025, installation view at Labs Contemporary Art, ph. courtesy LABS Contemporary Art
Memory, body, and nature are the key words of this exhibition, which pushes us to observe the fragility of the universe and humanity, using the body as a means of relating to matter: whether it is used to meticulously apply long brushstrokes of paint or to carefully break small shards of glass. The body remains the most direct means we have of contact with reality, and it is through it that it is possible to create a synthesis that evokes the infinite and compels us to observe it.
Samuel Tonelli
Info:
Lucia Cristiani – Finja Sander – Elisabeth Sonneck. People I Know
Text by Giulia Marchi
27/09/2025 -1/11/2025
Labs Contemporary Art
Via Santo Stefano 38, Bologna
www.labsgallery.it
is a contemporary art magazine since 1980
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