Shahryar Nashat's 'Stream of Spleen' at MASI Lugano

Shahryar Nashat's exhibition 'Stream of Spleen' at MASI Lugano explores the concept of spleen—both as melancholy and as the organ producing bile—through sculptures, videos, and installations that incorporate organic fluids and residues. The artist has transformed the museum's hypogeum space by installing a rectangular room clad in custom pale pink tiles, contrasting with unfinished vertical walls. Inside, six identical animal carcasses from the 'Bone out' series (2019–present) are painted blood red, made from synthetic materials and oil paint, referencing food industry processes and art historical depictions of raw meat from 17th-century still lifes to Francis Bacon, Hermann Nitsch, Jannis Kounellis, Marc Quinn, and Anish Kapoor. Nearby, fiberglass sculptures suggest mutilated muscle tissue. Outside the room, pink Portuguese marble obstacles evoke bodily forms, leading to a large screen showing the video 'Warnings' (2024), which juxtaposes suspended, decomposing bodies with vigorous wolves filmed in nature, digitally rendered, or AI-generated. The soundtrack shifts from panting to howling to accelerated electronic music. The exhibition also includes 'Brother_03.IPEG' (2023), a photographic print coated in acrylic gel giving it an organic appearance, depicting a quarter of flesh of uncertain species. Nashat's work is presented as an evolution of figuration, blending concrete and disembodied bodies via digital images.