Gian Maria Tosatti's Immersive Installation Travels to Barcelona

Gian Maria Tosatti, the Italian visual artist and director of the Quadriennale di Roma, has for the first time relocated a site-specific work to a different context. His installation, originally created in 2019 for the A4 Arts Foundation in Cape Town, is now on view at the Museo di Santa Monica in Barcelona until June 2, 2024. The work is part of the group exhibition "El otro lado," curated by Ferran Utzet and Enric Puig Punyet. The exhibition features a labyrinth on the ground floor where visitors can wear costumes by Giulia Grumi, while Tosatti's installation occupies the second floor. It recreates the Cape Town episode of his ongoing project "Il mio cuore è vuoto come uno specchio," a conceptual journey begun in 2018 in Catania that has also visited Riga, Cape Town, Odessa, and Istanbul. The installation reflects on apartheid and the concept of "the guiltless" as described by Hermann Broch, addressing themes of indifference and complicity in historical tragedies. Tosatti notes the work's contemporary relevance amid current wars and rising authoritarianism in Europe. The museum includes an intermediate floor with seven audiovisual interviews exploring the exhibition's themes from perspectives including psychoanalysis and magic.