Biorhy thms, Mirad’Or Gallery, Chiesa Santa Maria della Neve, Pisogne, Italy, 09.08—22.09.2025

THE CONTEXT OF THE PLACE

The area of Lake Iseo in northern Italy. Tradition, rich nature, and traces of prehistory dating back to the Neolithic era. For years, the region has been striving to be recognized as a center of contemporary art outside metropolises. It is here that modern artistic interventions, such as The Floating Piers by Christo, have taken place. In addition to Land Art installations, projects that address the community's fundamental needs are highly valued here. The Mirad'Or Gallery is one such place. Its architecture, morphology, and structure resemble a futuristic dream. The world revolves around its glass form, with clouds drifting by. Immersed in the natural landscape, it protects the remnants of an ancient bathhouse and serves as an inspiring exhibition space with a strong gravitational pull. The venue is chosen by discerning creators, who present their artistic endeavors and the results of interdisciplinary research here. At Mirad'Or, under the artistic direction of Massimo Minini¹, artists such as Stefano Arienti and Daniel Buren have exhibited their works. Currently, work is underway on a new project that connects the territory and creates a dialogue between the contemporary and tradition. As part of these efforts, the "Sistine Chapel of the Poor"—Chiesa Santa Maria della Neve—has joined the exhibition venues and now serves as a space for displaying contemporary art. The scientific direction of the project has been undertaken by Flaminio Gualdoni², and Wrocław-based artists Marlena Promna and Tomasz Pietrek have been invited to collaborate on this experiment. Working together, they have dedicated their premiere works to both spaces.

"Remember the title of this intriguing exhibition, with its obvious etymological reference. The biorhythm regulates the flow and connection between cells. It is a periodic trend present in biochemical, physiological, electrochemical, and even behavioral processes, common to all living beings. Transferring this idea to contemporary art, let us think about how to find such a harmonious relationship and create new habits and mutual attitudes."³

BETWEEN SIGN AND METAPHOR—BIOFORM BY MARLENA PROMNA

Intuition is a primal component of nature, and with its sensitivity to perceived impressions, it can discover and recognize the changing character of reality far more effectively than reason. Marlena Promna's artistic intuition compels her to create expressive forms through the impact of color. Her paintings carry a deeply emotional context.

In Chiesa Santa Maria della Neve, the monumental diptych Grey Field becomes a living landscape alongside Girolamo Romanino's spectacular frescoes. The earthy, heavy base of the painting gently rises upwards, transforming into undulating, increasingly lighter layers, ultimately becoming a luminous space for metaphysical contemplation. The artist subjected pigments to creative grinding, forming a painterly paste—a biomass whose morphological and semantic potential offers broad possibilities for artistic exploration, evoking associations with organic growths or soil-forming phenomena. Combined with natural hues, she achieved a sense of unhurried existence and delicacy, an experience of matter in its vibrant light.

The extraordinary sensuality, clarity, and picturesque quality of the paintings in the Mirad'Or Gallery can be attributed to the technique of layering color tissue through "stippling," popularized in art history by the Neo-Impressionists⁴. Precisely applied layers of countless dots, like organic microparticles, define form without the use of lines, coming together into vast macrocosms full of visual beauty: "(...) from tiny details, minutiae, particles, a single leaf of a single tree is formed."⁵

The mélange of vibrating elements captures attention but doesn’t allow the gaze to rest in one place. The viewer’s eye is set in motion, and they involuntarily become part of a subtle interaction. At the same time, it is hard to resist the urge to touch the texture of the painting, which at times mimics the sensation of "soft moss," while at other times transforms into "hot stone." The imagination of the attentive observer (like the perceptual module of a neural network) processes the observed data, and from individual "pixels," brings forth a form. The most human need is the assimilation of a symbol. The arrangement of spots and light allows the eye to perceive a sign. A tree—a symbol of unity with the universe. System and Bio Hub. Life and survival. The intimate bond between humans and nature. In the Biorhythms project, this symbol resonates loudly. It is the quintessence of what is natural.

The refined fragments of landscape and organic motifs in Marlena Promna's paintings harmonize perfectly with the scenery seen through the gallery's glass walls. Between the surface of the water, the view of nearby rocks, and the masses of hot air, we find the dynamism of spatial and compositional structures immersed in a chromatic whirlpool. Four smaller works—Curtain, Shadows, Blue Mountain, and Columns—link the interior and exterior, the real world and intimate reflection. The planes merge, simultaneously advancing and receding. Created through the use of contrasts and tensions, they give the illusion of depth. This exhibition reveals the titular rhythms that reflect the dynamics of nature: the lines of distant horizons, the organic structure of layered paint, and the cycles of day and night.

The culmination of the artist's vision is the attempt to encapsulate the landscape in a synthetic form of pure abstraction, emerging as if through a process of transformation. This gives rise to the boldly colored series from the Milanese Triptych cycle, featuring the paintings Horizontal, Metamorphosis, Transmutation, and Center. The latter aspires to summarize the exhibition, building its overall significance. The juxtaposition of dense matter with smooth areas creates a sense of movement, further enhanced by color. As an intentional creation, it adheres to the rules of the interplay between intellect and imagination. The artist asks: What do you see within? What forms your matrix? How do you construct your world?

SUMMARY

The Biorhythms project is an intriguing thought experiment and a carefully crafted realization, serving as a mirror in which humanity can reexamine its place within the world of nature, machines, and objects. It is based on the mechanisms of human perception, which continue to shape our understanding of the surrounding world. At the same time, as an artistic endeavor, it evokes a sense of unease, reminding us that we are witnessing a global mutation affecting every aspect of our individual and collective existence. In its intellectual realm, it compels discussion and raises difficult questions about the direction we are heading in during this inevitable transformation, where technology has become an indispensable companion to life, and "biological" may come to mean "limiting."

The exhibition, situated in the heart of spectacular nature, allows for a direct sensory experience. Visitors hear the sounds of the city and the waves of the lake and feel the scent of water and the warmth of the sun's rays. At the same time, adopting a different perspective urges them to redefine their thinking about nature as something that can be "surpassed," objectified, optimized, and commodified.

It is a bold project at the intersection of social activism and cultural critique, which, by employing the language of metaphor, forms a narrative that serves as a collection of visual essays on self-awareness and the essence of human existence. It opens a debate about the future of that existence in the context of climate change and the already unfolding era of transhumanism.

Zyta Misztal von Blechinger

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¹ An icon of Italian culture and a brilliant erudite. Since 1973, Minini's story has intertwined with the history of the best contemporary art of the past fifty years. The Massimo Minini Gallery has been a permanent presence at Art Basel in Basel, Fiac in Paris, Artissima in Turin, Frieze in New York, and Miart in Milan.
² Writer; art history lecturer at the Brera Academy in Milan. He has long directed institutions such as the Galleria Civica in Modena, the Civici Museum in Varese, and the Arnaldo Pomodoro Foundation in Milan. He was the commissioner of the 44th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale and a member of the scientific committee of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and the Archivio Manzoni. He has curated numerous museum exhibitions featuring artists such as Vasco Bendini, Mario Mafai, Jean Fautrier, Lucio Fontana, Enzo Cucchi, Urs Lüthi, Jaume Plensa, George Grosz, Giacomo Manzù, Massimo Campigli, Leonardo Cremonini, André Villers, Antoni Tàpies, Meret Oppenheim, and Shimizu Tetsuo. He collaborates with Corriere della Sera and, since 2006, has written the Il criptico d'arte column in Il Giornale dell'Arte. He is also a columnist for Il Giorno, La Domenica del Corriere, Italia Oggi, Gente, and Rai Radio.
³ Flaminio Gualdoni, a word about the exhibition (a paraphrase with my own translation).
⁴ The terms divisionism and pointillism originate from descriptions of Georges Seurat's painting technique. In this method, paint was applied to the canvas in the form of dots of contrasting pigment, with the calculated arrangement of colored dots, based on optical science, intended to be perceived by the retina as a single shade.
⁵ A reference to the outstanding novel on shaping reality, portraying humanity in the face of the vastness: Cosmos by Witold Gombrowicz as a genealogy of the perception of chaos and a phenomenology of consciousness, in the attempt to configure chaos into order.