«When one speaks but an own, new language that no one understands yet, sometimes he [she] has to wait a long time until he [she] hears an echo». A statement made by Swiss artist Meret Oppenheim (1913-85) on the occasion of her 1975 Basel Art Prize speech. A statement that resonates and is the starting point for the group exhibition L’arcobaleno riposa sulla strada – The rainbow rests on the road, that will open its doors at the Roman seat of Istituto Svizzero next fall.
In the wake of the omnipresent retrospectives featuring Meret Oppenheim, the exhibition in Rome (the title comes from a poem by the artist from 1933) inquires into precisely this echo. A selection of works by Meret Oppenheim is placed in dialogue with works by artists of a younger and recent generation. Meret Oppenheim’s perception of the world, her self-positioning as an artist, and her understanding of artistic practice continue to fascinate today. Thus, her exploration of the subconscious, of dreams, the linking of visual and lyrical creation, or her reflection on her own position as a ‚female artist among artists‘ (as she wrote to her parents from Paris in the 1930s), which also manifested itself in an active participation in the feminist debates of later years, are themes that continue to preoccupy young artists today. The invited artists – Pascale Birchler, Miriam Laura Leonardi, Hunter Longe, Lou Masduraud, Luzie Meyer and Ser Serpas – present new and existing works. In this dialogical juxtaposition, Meret Oppenheim’s topicality becomes evident. At the same time, the exhibition generates both a kind of ‚re-reading‘ of the themes that preoccupied Meret Oppenheim and an updating through the eyes of artists of a younger generation.
