Leap into the void. Art beyond matter

From 3 February 2023, GAMeC presents the major exhibition Leap into the void. Art beyond matter, the third and final chapter of the multi-year exhibition project dedicated to the investigation of matter in 20th and 21st century art.

Launched in 2018 with the exhibition Black Hole. Art and materiality between Formless and Invisible and continued in 2021 with Nothing is lost. Art and matter in transformation, Leap into the void closes the Trilogy of Matterby exploring the theme of dematerialisation and creating a cross-cutting narrative that highlights the connections between investigations into emptiness – undertaken by the early avant-garde movements and developed by experimental groups after the Second World War – research into flow dating back to the early years of computerisation, and the use of new languages and simulated realities in the post-digital era.

The exhibition, curated by Lorenzo Giusti and Domenico Quaranta, presents the works of some of the great protagonists of 20th century art history and pioneers of digital art together with authors from more recent generations, thanks to loans from important international institutions and private collections.

Specifically, Leap into the void turns its gaze to those artists who, at different times, have investigated the dimension of emptiness, denying it in substance or identifying it as a mere ideal dimension, or whose work has been able to reflect the epochal changes in the perception of the material dimension, introduced by the emergence of the paradigms of software and computerisation, as well as by the digital revolution and its systematisation.

The exhibition is divided into three thematic sections - Vacuum, Flow e Simulation - that frame as many ways of focusing, representing and expressing the principles of dematerialisation, and unfolds in an experiential journey that stimulates the viewer's perception from a visual and bodily point of view.