Visitors to Debora Bolzsoni’s “Somnambular Geometry” exhibition are immediately struck by two distinct sculptural elements. The first one, Luz that descends (Lumière qui descend), 2023, a large rectangular metal frame studded with downward-facing fluorescent bulbs, takes up most of the room. To create this rather minimalist-looking site-specific intervention, the artist lowered the gallery’s existing fixture to the floor, leaving one side partially suspended so that visitors could still walk below and amid its beams.
Unlike this austere metallic structure, Sonambulaire, 2023, consists of an oversized pillow, vaguely reminiscent of the soft sculptures of Claes Oldenburg. Hanging like a painting on the wall, the object is suggestive, bordering on the strange. On its surface, Bolzsoni stitched four wavering lines. They read like a plotted graph, evoking financial turmoil and pandemic reports, as well as reports from Marcel Duchamp Three standard stops1913–14.
Placed on a stool, Sonambulaire (model), 2023, features a mock-up of an alternate version of the show, with an even larger cushion supporting the angled metal rectangle. A fourth wall sculpture, Frequency swing (Frequency oscillation), 2023, hints at other potential configurations, envisaging a three-dimensional version of the lines of the graph in which they traverse space and pierce walls. Ultimately, the subtle dissonances created by Bolzsoni’s deftly arranged repertoire of references transform the gallery into a resonance box, as the exhibition’s initial pragmatism gives way to a meditation on larger contemporary topics.
