Nairy Baghramian “Misfits”

The artist’s first solo exhibition in an Italian institution, Misfits is a new project of the Furla Series, the program promoted by Fondazione Furla and realized in collaboration with Italy’s foremost museums. The exhibition explores some of the pivotal themes of the artist’s research, from her interest in crossing and redefining the border between interior and exterior to the relationship between the aesthetic object and its institutional context.

Baghramian firmly believes that a work of art, despite its considerable autonomy, is always inextricably linked to the time, place and socio-political context in which it appears. Accordingly, for the Misfits project, she began with the specific urban setting of the GAM, that is, an English garden open to adults only when accompanied by children. The contrasting impressions created by a context that evokes the reassuring and playful world of childhood, while at the same time engendering a sense of frustration through its limited accessibility, provide the inspiration for Misfits.

By combining the idea of play as an educational tool with reflection on the experience of disappointment and inadequacy, Baghramian has created a series of large-scale sculptures, formally designed to inhabit both the interior and exterior spaces of the museum.

The exhibition unfolds across five rooms, each housing a sculptural piece, and continues on the adjacent outdoor terrace. Each work on display comprises two halves that are made of different materials – painted casted aluminum and wood for the interior pieces, marble for the exterior ones – and installed as the disjointed parts of a possible whole.