Private Atlas, Chiara Dynys Chapter II – 6/8

Chapter II – Attraversamenti

May – August 2025 

 

Texts by Alessandro Castiglioni

 

The second chapter of Private Atlas, an exhibition tracing Chiara Dynys‘ journey through twelve installations for BUILDING BOX, explores boundaries and thresholds — hence its title, Attraversamenti [Crossings]. Many of the artist’s works function as places where experiences unfold, events emerge, and limits — both material and immaterial — are imagined and overcome. The notion of transition, transformation, and the ambiguity of thresholds has frequently been central to Dynys’ work, both in a physical and symbolic sense. Her approach is never static: the idea of duality — entry and exit, opening and closure, light and darkness — is not presented as fixed, but rather as part of an ongoing process, a dynamic state.

This entropic experience takes shape and is conveyed through the four installations created for this second chapter, each employing different forms: from light-sensitive lenticular surfaces that transform with the viewer’s movement to a series of architectural archetypes intersected by objects, lights, or spectacular atmospheric phenomena.

In Attraversamenti [Crossings] we also find works that trace the artist’s research through various historical moments, reflecting the complexity and diversity of her explorations. In this sense, the variety of media Dynys employs further evokes the theme of crossing: from photography to glass sculpture, from synthetic materials to moving images.

This concept of passage is also evident in her dialogue with spaces and nature: lights, fog, and the Northern Lights are phenomena the artist both traverses and invites us to experience—if only visually— through the windows of BUILDING BOX, and once again in the imprint left upon our memory. For Chiara Dynys, crossing is thus a non-negotiable condition, a metaphor for the very essence of being an artist.

 

Chapter II – 6/8

The second installment of Attraversamenti [Crossings] — the second chapter of the Private Atlas project — presents Look Afar (2016), an environmental video installation on view from June 4th to July 1st, 2025. Originally showcased at the VII Moscow Biennale at the Arkhangelskoye Museum, the time-lapse video stems from a series of recordings the artist made in Lapland during a period of research and residency, where she sought to capture the elusive and spectacular vision of the Northern Lights.
Chiara Dynys describes the work as follows:
“I filmed the video in Lapland, spending several days in a small house, isolated in the snow and ice, in search of this primordial, esoteric light. It felt as if the aurora was being generated in that very place, only to return there — as if we ourselves were the source of this light. In that moment, I thought that everything emanated from us and returned to us: as if we were not only witnessing these phenomena but also possessed the energy to make them happen. Look Afar was born from this alchemical reflection.”

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Private Atlas is a solo exhibition that unfolds over time, an experimental project tracing thirty-five years of the artist’s research and activity. The exhibition represents a journey composed by a series of appointments that reveal and highlight poetic aspects of the artist’s work, delving into her biography, her obsessions and her artistic exploration.

As curator Alessandro Castiglioni observes, the exhibition is presented as: “an historical, but also emotional geography of Chiara Dynys’ work.”

 

The exhibition project, conceived as a private atlas, is structured around three main chapters entitled La Disseminazione della memoria [The Dissemination of Memory], Attraversamenti [Crossings] and Viaggio in Italia [Journey Through Italy], presenting, on a monthly basis, historical works and new productions by the artist in site-specific installations designed on purpose for BUILDING BOX’s space.

 

The first chapter, La Disseminazione delle memoria [The Dissemination of Memory] (from January to April, 2025), gathers works where space, atomized and fragmented, reflects on the relationship with forms of Western culture in constant dialogue with one’s identity.

 

The second chapter, Attraversamenti [Crossings] (from May to August, 2025), addresses one of the central themes in the artist’s work: the threshold, conceived as a place, a limit, in both its material and immaterial dimensions.

 

The third chapter, Viaggio in Italia [Journey Through Italy] (from September, 2025 to January, 2026), referencing Rossellini’s iconic masterpiece, explores cinematic imagery, the relationship with the ancient and classical, as well as with popular and vernacular culture.

 

These narratives, like a kaleidoscope—another archetypal form dear to the artist—intertwine, juxtaposing images and imaginaries in a circular continuity over the course of a year. This approach offers a new historical-critical perspective on Chiara Dynys’ work, as suggested by Castiglioni.