Martha Rosler Major Retrospective at GAM Turin

The Galleria d'Arte Moderna (GAM) in Turin opened a three-month major retrospective of Martha Rosler on October 24, 2010, running until January 30, 2011. This follows her exhibitions in France in 2006 and 2008. For the occasion, Rosler created a new work engaging with African migrants in Turin, interviewing them about their journeys across the Mediterranean and their struggles with integration. The installation features a floor path marked with colorful maps of African and European countries—Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Côte d'Ivoire, Algeria, France—leading to Turin, with audio recordings of their testimonies and indistinct, pixelated photographs reminiscent of cell phone images, evoking prostitution and displacement. The rest of the exhibition contextualizes this new work with iconic pieces: the videos "Semiotics of the Kitchen" (1975) and "Vital Statistics of a Citizen, Simply Obtained" (1977), photomontages like "International Style or International City" (1965), "Beauty Knows No Pain or Body Beautiful" (1966-72), and "Bringing the War Home: House Beautiful" (1967-72), later reprised during the Iraq War as "New Series" (2004). The retrospective highlights Rosler's collage practice and her sustained political engagement.