Michael Snow Exhibition at GAM Torino Explores Film and Artist's Books

The Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GAM) in Turin presents a focused exhibition on Canadian artist Michael Snow (1928–2023), curated by Elena Volpato. The show revisits two key works: the seminal 1967 film "Wavelength" re-edited by Snow in 2003 as "WVLNT (Wavelength For Those Who Don’t Have the Time)", and the 1975 artist's book "Cover to Cover", displayed alongside a 2020 reprint by Light Industry and Primary Information. Both works are installed in the GAM video library, inviting viewers to explore connections between film and book. The film features a continuous electronic hum punctuated by The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever", layering three shots that zoom toward a photograph of Atlantic Ocean waves, creating a ritualistic 15-minute experience. The book, recently acquired by the Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT for the Fondo Giorgio Maffei, unfolds like a paper film with caleidoscopic images; halfway through, it flips 180 degrees, forcing a new perspective in a vertiginous Droste effect. Volpato describes the work as a walk through the rational concept of artistic representation, where windows become the grid of modernist painting, referencing Ad Reinhardt and Frank Stella. Snow uses cinema as a transposition of consciousness, while the book's front/back, up/down polarities reflect his conceptual sophistication.