AMONG THE INVISIBLE JOINS - Works from the Enea Righi Collection

The title AMONG THE INVISIBLE JOINS is borrowed from the writing of Virginia Woolf, in which human life unfolds as a testament to its fluidity, brimming with potential and uncertainty. Her characters delicately hover between presence and impending absence, grappling with the memory of events and conflicts that prove elusive to full comprehension. The title therefore hints at the various thresholds between remembering and forgetting and the recurring acts of opening and closing doors on the continuous human journey of becoming. As such, the exhibition traces the intimate connections between life itself and the stories we tell, between what was and what remains physically perceptible. Above all, it highlights the collectors’ understanding of the transformative power of art by providing profound insights into life’s fluidity.

The works selected for AMONG THE INVISIBLE JOINS encourage viewers to ponder the transitional spaces of contemporary existence, where socio-political tensions intertwine with artistic expression. Throughout their artistic and sometimes activist work, artists such as Lisetta Carmi, Nan Goldin, and Zoe Leonard have emphasized the fluid nature of identity by regarding bodies as open systems in a permanent exchange with the environment. The works of Giulia Cenci, Jef Geys, Roman Ondak, Tarik Kiswanson and Bronwyn Katz are just a few examples of how doors, and windows recur in the exhibition as potent motifs that frame the human body as well as marking transitions and thresholds. Objects from daily life, urban architecture, and public décor – like Alex Ayed’s sculptures or Michael E. Smith or Massimo Bartolini’s installations – are relocated and reframed by the artists to compose new narratives and weave unexpected connections between geographies and memories.

Curated by Museion director Bart van der Heide, Frida Carazzato, Brita Köhler, and Leonie Radine, in collaboration with the collector Lorenzo Paini, the exhibition showcases a significant part of the Enea Righi Collection. Over the years, this collection has not only followed the artistic evolution of renowned conceptual positions, it has also embraced and supported a younger generation of artists. Another defining characteristic of the collection is its affinity for works of an institutional scale.