COMPLEX

Spazio Contemporanea presents Complex, Marilisa Cosello’s solo exhibition conceived by curator Luca Panaro as a comprehensive survey of the artist’s most significant works.
Formulated in collaboration with Galleria Studio G7, the project showcases an articulated journey through the diverse and dynamic media employed by Cosello. The exhibition combines performative action originating from video and photography with drawing and sculptural objects.
Cosello’s research merges the imaginary of the past century with the contemporary scene, presenting bodies in transition as they intersect with significant historical moments, opening new territories where protagonists appear to exist only within a larger design. The “exercises” staged by Cosello are projections that draw from 20th-century propaganda, as evident in her earlier works. Physical presence and the alienated body, lived experience and athletic sport, frequently serve as starting points—acts of rebellion against dominant ideologies.
In 2020, the artist initiated the Try cycle, a series of environmental performances staged in various cities, each featuring a different sport as its subject: fencing, artistic gymnastics, boxing, and weightlifting. These powerful images reveal how Cosello decontextualizes physical gesture to reflect on female identity. The athletes’ postures, symbolic use of color, and seriality of clothing are key elements in her research that this project aims to highlight.

From 2022, the American Dream series emerged from a dialogue between Marilisa Cosello and Noam Chomsky, who authorized the use of excerpts from his book “Requiem for the American Dream: The 10 Principles of Concentration of Wealth & Power”. This body of work combines the sports imagery from the previous cycle with visions of the American dream—featuring muscular figures with iron arms, denim shorts, steel objects, and group choreographies. The work depicts a society in rapid decline, where violence becomes aestheticized through its inexorable transformation into image.