Lantern with no Walls

The lanterns of the title of the exhibition “Lantern with no Walls” evoke the six films projected on canvas in the space Tarmak22 within the Gstaad-Saanen airport. The canvas panels used also as light dividers of the space are sat on mountain stones, an elegant solution that allows the six works to interact without disturbing each other. The set design by the studio 2050+ is an impressive achievement of the exhibition curated by Leonardo Bigazzi, Alessandro Rabottini and Paola Ugolini, where light and sound circulate, specifically without walls, in a soft and warm grey. The exhibition space becomes an open landscape, and the moving images – selected from the collection of the Fondazione In Between Art Film – offer a further opening beyond the walls of the Tarmak22, because landscapes are their artistic focus. In this architectural context, not only does each work explore the panoramic view in a stimulating way, but working in concert they transform the exhibition space into a piece of expanded cinema, clearly projected outside, into the physical landscape of the Swiss Alps. The experience of getting to Tarmak22 is itself a fundamental part of this winter exhibition, truly because it is a special experience. The Gstaad-Saanen airport (pathetically) marks its exclusivity by not being served by public transportation. Therefore, for those who are not provided with private airplanes or private cars, the 2km walk on a perfectly iced path on the shaded side of the valley in the middle of a wonderful snowy landscape constitutes a challenging effort – in my case the temperature reached -10°C. This ultimate landscape will appear as a postcard-like wall, and we as the ultimate lantern.
More Info on the Exhibition
Works:
Adrian Paci, The Wanderers, 2021
Masbedo, Teorema d’incompletezza, 2008
Saodat Ismailova, Melted into the Sun, 2024
Thao Nguyen Phan, Becoming Alluvium, 2019-ongoing
Janis Rafa, Winter Came Early, 2015
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané, A Dream Dreaming a Dream, 2020
Text: Giuseppe Di Salvatore