Wolfgang Laib Without Time, Without Place, Without Body

On Wednesday 7 July at 9:30pm, the Museo Novecento will be presenting the world premier of Without Time, Without Place, Without Body - a film by Wolfgang Laib, dedicated to the exhibition project created by the German artist himself, in what is now one of the most extensive solo shows in recent years in Florence, occupying prestigious cultural institutions in the city.The screening will be introduced by Tommaso Sacchi, Councillor for Culture, Fashion, Design and International Relations of the City of Florence, Stefano Casciu, Director of the Polo Museale della Toscana and Sergio Risaliti, Director of the Museo Novecento.

The film, commissioned by the Museo Novecento and produced by MUS. E, was made at the time of the exhibition of the same name, curated by Sergio Risaliti, which involved places of extraordinary historical and artistic value such as the Museum of San Marco (Polo Museale della Toscana), the Chapel of the Magi (Palazzo Medici Riccardi), the Rucellai Chapel (church of San Pancrazio, Marino Marini Museum) and the Pazzi Chapel (Monumental Complex of Santa Croce), in a relationship played out between the visibility of art and the invisibility of the spirit, linking Renaissance magnificence with contemporary artistic research. 

The film, narrated by the artist himself, retraces the phases of preparation and development undertaken during the ambitious project that has created a close dialogue between the city's past and the contemporary research of the German master. The art of Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti, Benozzo Gozzoli and Beato Angelico, in dialogue with minimalist works of great symbolic significance, made with natural elements such as pollen and beeswax, uncovers a relationship played out entirely on sensitivity and subtle perception between sculpture, architecture and nature, uniting the East with the West in his daily life and creative practice. In a time like ours, in which the whole of humanity is looking for a way to overcome the pandemic and the difficult relationship between man and nature, Laib’s art gives a new perspective on the redefinition of humanism in a way which is no longer exclusively anthropocentric.

BIOGRAPHY

Wolfgang Laib was born in Metzingen in southern Germany in 1950. He approached art after studying medicine and in 1975 he made his first Milkstone, a white marble slab covered with milk. In 1977, he began to collect pollen in the fields around his residence, starting a "practice" that would become a milestone in his artistic production. In the following years, between 1978 and 1981, he presented his famous pollen squares in several solo exhibitions in Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the United States. In 1982 he participated in Documenta 7 curated by Rudi Fuchs and in the Venice Biennale. Following a long trip that he made during those years in India, he included rice in his works, creating The Rice Meals for the Nine Planets and, later, the first Rice Houses. His exhibitions have been held in museums, exhibitions and art institutions around the world including: the ARC in Paris, the CAPC Musée d'Art Contemporain in Bordeaux, the Sidney Biennial, the Toyota Municipal Museum, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, the Fondation Beyeler in Basel, the Macro in Rome, the Sant'Apollinare in Classe complex in Ravenna, the Kunstmuseum in Bonn, the Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Musée de Grenoble, the MoMA in New York, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

FILM CARD

Wolfgang Laib

Without Time, Without Place, Without Body Florence, Complesso Monumentale di Santa Croce, Museo di San Marco, Palazzo Medici Riccardi, Museo Marino Marini

Country: Italy

Year of Production: 2019 - 2021

Duration: 45'

Language: English, Italian 

Director: Francesco Cacchiani

Filming: Francesco Faralli, Alessio Lavacchi, Davide Castagnetti, Francesco Cacchiani

Editing: Francesco Cacchiani

Soundtrack: various authors

A project by: Museo Novecento, Florence

Edited by: Sergio Risaliti

Produced by: MUS.E Entrance is free while places last. For information please contact: [email protected].