francesco arena (solo): “il giardino, la sala”

4 may - 29 june 2025, 2pm - 6pm​​​​​​

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francesco arena: “il giardino, la sala”

4 may - 29 june 2025, 2pm - 6pm​​​

 

francesco Arena welcomes us into hoet gallery, where two adjacent architectures—the grand, vaulted ballroom and its intimate garden—merge into a stage for ritual and memory. Inside, he has crafted three subtle tableaux that evoke traditions of dance and communal gathering: a bronze disc bearing an eternally burning candle; a clay podium etched with a frozen choreography of waltz steps; and a silent procession of found shoes—monumental imprints of everyday movement.

in the garden, arena engages the landscape with three site-specific works that elevate the ordinary into ceremony: a bronze swing inscribed with poetry of past and future; a soaring column that summons fire as a shared ritual; and a flowing fountain that slowly erases passages from joyce’s ulysses beneath its currents. By placing three works indoors and three outdoors, Arena weaves an uninterrupted dialogue between enclosure and expanse, past and present—inviting viewers to inhabit the rhythms of time, place, and collective experience.