Benni Bosetto's 'REBECCA' at HangarBicocca Translates Absence into Spatial Experience

Benni Bosetto's exhibition 'REBECCA' at HangarBicocca in Milan, curated by Fiammetta Griccioli, draws its title from Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel, where the character Rebecca never appears but organizes the space through her absence. Unlike the novel's tension built through delay—also explored in Alfred Hitchcock's 1940 film adaptation—Bosetto's show presents presence as a given condition from the start, diffused throughout the space rather than concentrated. The exhibition is divided into three sections: La Guancia (The Cheek), Il Cuore (The Heart), and La Pancia (The Belly), each corresponding to contact, resonance, and instinct. Works include the cycle 'Porte' (2026) and a performance 'Tango (II version)' (2026) that introduces a dynamic of negotiation through dance but does not alter the overall structure. The installation references Gaston Bachelard's poetics of domestic space and Alfred Gell's concept of objects as agents, yet the objects here participate without transforming the system. The review notes that while the show is coherent and controlled, the constant presence risks losing intensity, lacking the friction of absence that made the novel compelling.