C(to the power of)4

Artists: Nazgol Ansarinia, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Invernomuto, Diamond Stingily

C(to the power of)4 celebrates the energy that contemporary artists bring into the museum. In her first show at Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Director Letizia Ragaglia unites four solo presentations by Nazgol Ansarinia, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Invernomuto and Diamond Stingily, which also engage with the museum’s collection. The three artists and the artist duo were invited to choose a work from the collection and integrate it into their own displays. What all the artists share is a distinct narrative manner. 

“This is C(to the power of)4: the collection is augmented, but also contaminated, by four younger protagonists. The “C” prompts associations with “Contamination,” “Crossover,” and “Community,” given that the artists strengthen each other even though they are very different,” as Letizia Ragaglia observes.

Opening up new perspectives on a time past, they demonstrate possible interpretations for today. Coming from different cultures, the artists explore exclusion and difference in social life, the history of subcultures, legends of the past and the transformation of urban spaces. Biographical elements and memories are interwoven in the exhibition to create a collective memory. In C(to the power of)4 visitors can expect an interdisciplinary crossover with performance and sound in four exhibition rooms that enables vital and surprising encounters with the collection.

Nazgol Ansarinia
Nazgol Ansarinia (b. 1979 in Tehran) is interested in the in-between spaces of social life, which she investigates, dismantles and questions in her artistic practice in order to put them into a new context. Her focus in this process of deconstruction is to emphasise the relationship to current Iranian society. C(to the power of)4 begins with Ansarinia’s The Inverted Pool (2019–2022), a monumental installation that plays with the experience and conception of space and is also connected to the artist’s own life. In the exhibition, Ansarinia’s work engages in a dialogue with Cellule no. 5 (1992) by Absolon (1964–1993) from the museum’s collection. 

Mercedes Azpilicueta
Mercedes Azpilicueta (b. 1981 in La Plata, Argentina) describes herself as a “dishonest researcher” who operates between literature, folklore and street culture. In her works she gives a voice to queer, feminist or marginalised figures. The centrepiece of her presentation is the installation Potatoes, Riots and Other Imaginaries, created for the Prix de Rome in 2021: a gigantic tapestry with woven images, clothing, work tools and sound. Her interest in the lacunae of history and women shunted to the margins of society led Azpilicueta to an in-depth investigation of Austrian-Liechtenstein artist Anne Marie Jehle (1937–2000).

Diamond Stingily
With lavish bouquets of flowers, plaits of hair, chains or doors, Diamond Stingily (b. 1990 in Chicago) turns the third room of C(to the power of)4 into an interdisciplinary synthesis of the arts resembling a collection of relics. Based on personal memories which she links to American social memory, the artist tackles such complex questions as loss and transience, structural racism or identity formation.

The central installation of her show is titled dead Daughter (2021): laid out on a carpet are plinths with artificial flowers, with wax and bronze imprints of her hands and feet spread out between them. Stingily’s work engages in a dialogue with a baroque still life of fruit and flowers (1698) by Franz Werner von Tamm (1658–1724).

Invernomuto
Simone Bertuzzi (b. 1983) and Simone Trabucchi (b. 1982) have been collaborating as Invernomuto since 2003. Both were born in Piacenza (Italy) and live in Milan and Vernasca. The works of the Italian artist duo revolve around exposing myths and legendary places as constructed fictions. Invernomuto feature in C(to the power of)4 with three installations: The white wax grotto Wax, Relax (2011–2022) shows a gigantic replica of the grotto of Lourdes, Zion, Paesaggio (2014) is the result of the duo’s investigation of Italy’s colonial history and Rimini Capitale Afro (2021) is a trashy relic of bygone club culture. Invernomuto’s presentation is framed by Pino Pascali’s Ponte levatoio (1968) from the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein collection.

A Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein production, curated by Letizia Ragaglia.

Exhibition publication
The exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive publication by Mousse Publishing with essays and numerous illustrations; contributions by: Susana Vargas Cervantes, Giuseppe Garrera, Rindon Johnson, Hamed Khosravi and Letizia Ragaglia.

Accompanying programme
Please check our website for regular updates on our program. For further information, please contact our press office.

Free admission every Wednesday!