Venice, a city of reflections and labyrinths, where each stone seems to tell a story and each canal whispers a secret, the 193 Gallery hosts a singular exhibition: “Bricks and Grids”. This is not, to be clear, a treatise on lagoon architecture, nor a study on urban geometry. Rather, it is an investigation into the structures that underlie human experience, the invisible frameworks that support our identities and the networks that connect us beyond distances. The artists Modou Dieng Yacine and Zoila Andrea Coc-Chang, coming from different geographical and cultural horizons, become explorers of these immaterial architectures.
Modou Dieng Yacine & Zoila Andrea Coc-Chang, “Bricks and Grids”, installation view at 193 Gallery, ph. Gabriele Bortoluzzi, courtesy 193 Gallery
Yacine, with his photographic paintings that blend abstraction and figuration, digs into the folds of the city, revealing traces of a hidden Venice, a parallel city inhabited by the memories of marginalized communities. His layered urban compositions are like urban palimpsests, where time overlaps with space and individual stories intertwine with collective history. One could say that Yacine seeks to make the invisible visible, to give form to the silent voices that resonate through the narrow streets and small squares. Coc-Chang, instead, constructs sculptures that challenge conventional notions of form and matter. Using waste materials – dried fruit, food leftovers, industrial fragments – she creates hybrid objects that question systems of value and economic hierarchies. Her creations are metaphors for a precarious and resilient architecture, capable of finding beauty and meaning even in what is considered useless. In this sense, Coc-Chang becomes a builder of alternative worlds, where the laws of economy are subverted and beauty emerges from the unexpected.
Modou Dieng Yacine & Zoila Andrea Coc-Chang, “Bricks and Grids”, installation view at 193 Gallery, ph. Gabriele Bortoluzzi, courtesy 193 Gallery
Together, Yacine and Coc-Chang invite us to rethink architecture not only as physical space, but as a place of encounter and exchange, as a network of relationships and narratives. The “bricks” and “grids” of the title become symbols of these complex and multifaceted structures, which define our lives and shape our identities. They are not just constructive elements, but also metaphors for the social, political and economic systems that govern us. In this Venice of over-tourism, made of traces and connections, of memories and desires, an invisible city reveals itself, made of transcontinental bonds and diasporic communities. A city that is not just a place, but a set of intersecting and self-narrating stories, a fabric of relationships that extends beyond geographical and cultural boundaries. And perhaps, it is precisely in this architecture of the invisible, in this weave of bonds and narratives, that one finds the true essence of every city, of every place, of every existence.
Modou Dieng Yacine & Zoila Andrea Coc-Chang, “Bricks and Grids”, installation view at 193 Gallery, ph. Gabriele Bortoluzzi, courtesy 193 Gallery
One could add that the exhibition itself, curated by Miriam Bettin, is an act of construction, an attempt to create a space for dialogue between different cultures and perspectives. The gallery thus becomes a sort of “city within the city”, a place where the voices of Yacine and Coc-Chang meet, their visions of the world and their reflections on human experience. And ultimately, isn’t this the task of art? To build bridges between different worlds, to reveal the hidden connections that bind us to one another and to imagine new possibilities for the future. In “Bricks and Grids,” architecture becomes a metaphor for our ability to build not only buildings, but also relationships, communities and identities.
Info:
Modou Dieng Yacine & Zoila Andrea Coc-Chang. Bricks and Grids
8/05 – 27/07/2025
curated by Miriam Bettin
193 Gallery
Dorsoduro 993/994, Venezia
www.193gallery.com
Independent artist and curator. Founder of No Title Gallery in 2011. I observe, study, ask questions, take informations and live in contemporary art, a real stimulus for my research.
NO COMMENT