PEOPLE & THINGS - Kika Bohr

Anthological exhibition curated by Marcello Abbiati

ON EXHIBITION from 8 October to 26 November 2023 from Tuesday to Sunday h. 4.30pm – 8.30pm

VERNISSAGE Saturday 7 October h. 17

Western civilization is based on a clear division, inherited from Roman law, between the concept of "person" (who carries out actions, who owns things) and that of "thing" (passive object, owned by people). For some artists and poets, however, as for a good part of "primitive" peoples, the relationship between these two entities is much more fluid and full of significant connections. In his essay People and Things , Roberto Esposito identifies in the human body the link which, nowadays, could once again connect these two concepts, overcoming their traditional opposition. The organic metaphor has a fundamental role, for example, within political theory. Institutions are often considered as forms of organism, and in general communities organized on the basis of the division of labor could be considered to all intents and purposes as bodies that replicate the life of biological bodies. The body therefore constitutes the ground of transit from the person to the thing and represents, according to Esposito, the element capable of overcoming this great division.

Over the years, Kika's art-making has taken on - alongside its social commitment and political message - also characteristics typical of archaic cultures, which involve the appropriation and manipulation of objects with magical-ritual purposes. The artist's body (his technical skills and consequent manual skills) is therefore the instrument through which the object becomes a thing. Giulia Niccolai recalls, in this regard, how «Kika Bohr paints and sculpts for pleasure, because she likes to do it, and for this same reason, she prefers to define her works with the term "things" and not "works". I wanted to make this clarification to highlight the rare and joyful aspect of his art: oil portraits, terracotta or copper foil sculptures of his daughters, husband, parents, brothers, friends or household animals, all therefore of beings that are close to her, that she has been able to observe for some time and with whom she has a profound bond."

Kika's "things" are distributed in 13 rooms of the "Antonio Sapone" art gallery, overlooking the bright gulf of Gaeta, each of which shows a different aspect of his thirty-year artistic production. From the most recent creations - the Pillars of Hercules - through oil and acrylic painting, to sculpture in raw earth or bronze, the exhibition itinerary also includes installations and experimental videos, where the immateriality of the support intends to suggest a reasoning "backwards" on what it means to make art, also and above all outside of traditional aesthetic canons.

To discover the artist, click here