THE HERBARIUM OF MEMORY: LAURA DE BERNARDI, GERGANA MANTSCHEVA, LAURA SÁNCHEZ FILOMENO

ESPACE MURAILLE, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

08.05 - 12.07.2023

EXHIBITION: The exhibition The Herbarium of Memory: Laura De Bernardi, Gergana Mantscheva, Laura Sánchez Filomeno presents paintings, drawings, objects and installations by three Swiss and international women artists whose artistic practices are united by a deeply introspective approach to personal and collective identity. Employing real seeds and dried plant specimens as well as embroidered, hand-stitched or painted plants and rhizomes, each one of these artists engages with the concept and epistemological meaning of the ‘herbarium’ to offer three different yet complementary artistic statements about life and memory.

On the occasion of the exhibition The Herbarium of Memory at Espace Muraille, the works by Laura De Bernardi, Gergana Mantscheva and Laura Sánchez Filomeno are presented as if they were heterogeneous specimens borrowed from different herbaria for the purpose of comparing and investigating three geographically and culturally distinct yet related botanical collections.

Exhibited on both levels of the 18th century building that hosts Espace Muraille, their physical proximity allows the viewer to study and experience them individually as well as in dialogue with one another and with the historic substance of the gallery, which on the occasion of the exhibition is symbolically transformed into an archive-like space. This dynamic activates a stimulating comparative approach and also generates inspiring new insights into the unique practices of the three artists. What are the characteristics which are intrinsic to each of the artworks exhibited and their creators? Is there a common thread in the work and research of these three artists despite their different original contexts and backgrounds? How do they integrate (or exploit) a realistic or symbolic representation of nature into their poetic discourse? Beyond the visible stylistic and material qualities that differentiate their individual approach to the investigation of nature as their primary source of inspiration, the works by De Bernardi, Mantscheva and Sánchez Filomeno can be interpreted all together as a powerful visual atlas of emotional memories, both personal and collective.

Using different artistic approaches and techniques – from traditional oil and acrylic painting to embroideries and ephemeral installations of textile and non-textile elements such as seeds and pollens – these three artists have created their own impressive collections of ‘herbaria’, from which unfolds their profound research on gestuality on one side, and cultural roots and memory on the other side. Through a delicate yet provocative visual vocabulary, they thematize complex questions of identity rooted in a reflection that spans gender and geography, history and politics, autobiographical references and the inclusion of different representations of otherness.

Curator: Valentina Locatelli

Artists:

https://debernardi.ch/

https://laurasanchezfilomeno.ultra-book.com

https://www.mantscheva.ch/