ARTFEED — Contemporary Art Intelligence

First Monograph on Laura Grisi Launches at FM Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea

publication · 2026-04-27

On November 29, 2021, FM Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea in Milan hosts the launch of 'The Measuring of Time', the first comprehensive monograph on Italian artist Laura Grisi (1939–2017). Edited by Marco Scotini and published by JRP | Editions in collaboration with Muzeum Susch, the book spans Grisi's career from 1958 to 2000. It includes five new essays by Valerie Da Costa, Giuliana Bruno, Martin Herbert, Krzystof Kosciuczuk, and Scotini, plus a reprint of Germano Celant's interview from the 1980s Rizzoli monograph. The event features speakers Grażyna Kulczyk (founder of Muzeum Susch), Anke Kempkes (director of Instituto Susch's feminist research program), and Valerie Da Costa. Grisi, known for her multidisciplinary work across gender, ecology, and interculturality, gained renewed visibility after Scotini's exhibition at Muzeum Susch. Her practice—using materials like neon, stones, water, wind, clocks, and chessboards—resists easy categorization, blending conceptual, kinetic, and minimal tendencies. Despite early success (exhibitions at Leo Castelli, Van Abbemuseum, and participation in the Venice Biennale since 1966), her work was marginalized in the 1980s due to the erasure of feminist and female artistic scenes. The monograph aims to pluralize narratives and decanonize modernist art history.

Key facts

  • First comprehensive monograph on Laura Grisi, 'The Measuring of Time', published by JRP | Editions in collaboration with Muzeum Susch.
  • Book launch on November 29, 2021, at FM Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea, Milan.
  • Edited by Marco Scotini, with essays by Valerie Da Costa, Giuliana Bruno, Martin Herbert, Krzystof Kosciuczuk, and Scotini.
  • Includes a reprint of Germano Celant's interview from the 1980s Rizzoli monograph.
  • Speakers at launch: Grażyna Kulczyk, Anke Kempkes, Valerie Da Costa.
  • Grisi's work spans gender, ecology, interculturality, using diverse materials like neon, stones, water, wind, clocks, chessboards.
  • Grisi participated in the Venice Biennale (1966), Quadriennale (1965), Young Italians at Jewish Museum (1968), and had solo show at Van Abbemuseum (1976).
  • Her visibility declined in the 1980s due to the erasure of feminist and female artistic scenes.

Entities

Artists

Institutions

Locations

  • Milan
  • Italy
  • Susch
  • Switzerland
  • Rome
  • Bologna
  • Boston
  • United States

Sources