The Bell Jar Exhibition at Monti8 in Rome Explores Ambivalent Protection Through Seven International Artists

Monti8 in Rome presents the group exhibition The Bell Jar, curated by Massimiliano Maglione, featuring works by seven international artists: Camilla Alberti, Ruby Chen, Mounir Eddib, Stephen Buscemi, Naomi Hawksley, Steffen Kern, and Amber Wynne-Jones. The exhibition takes its title from Sylvia Plath's 1963 novel, using the bell jar as an interpretive device that represents both protection and constraint, visibility and inaccessibility. The show is installed at the gallery's location on via degli Ausoni in Rome, organized as a relational network rather than a linear sequence, with central sculptures breaking frontal display conventions. Camilla Alberti contributes a sculpture made from recycled materials with a post-human aesthetic and muted pink color, while Stephen Buscemi presents photographic works that isolate details to suggest narrative. Steffen Kern employs calibrated light in photographic and cinematic constructions, Ruby Chen creates disorienting compositions, and Naomi Hawksley uses graphite on tracing paper for evanescent drawings. Mounir Eddib's work references family memory of Moroccan migration to Belgium and mining labor through dark surfaces with materials like lead and tar, and Amber Wynne-Jones presents layered gestural paintings in green and brown. The exhibition explores liminal states where protection and constraint coexist, with Plath's novel serving as an emotional backdrop rather than illustrative reference.