Bracha L. Ettinger. Bracha’s Notebooks
Exhibition drafted by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Marcella Beccaria
First Floor, Galleries 10 – 11
November 4, 2021 – February 27, 2022
Within the overall Museum program of Espressioni in 2021 – 2022, Castello di Rivoli Research Institute (CRRI), in collaboration with the curatorial department of the Museum, organizes the first solo exhibition in an Italian institution dedicated to Bracha L. Ettinger (Tel Aviv, 1948) whose artistic practice intertwines with her work and research as a philosopher and psychoanalyst.
Bracha L. Ettinger’s practice has its roots in her autobiographical past, in the history of her parents who survived the Holocaust; it explores the concepts of trauma, oblivion, the feminine and matrixial gaze, of the space of the unconscious and of the transition from invisible to visible enlightening art’s capacity of “healing”. Her notebooks, as her paintings, are characterized by a dimension between the abstract and the figurative, obtained through fine brushmarks and layers of color and shapes that create an atmosphere oscillating between darkness and light, and invite viewers to immerse themselves in an intimate and spiritual dimension.
The exhibition presents a selection of 5 paintings and approximately 50 notebooks and used by the artist to annotate and trace her associations, reflections, and working notes, joining together words and drawings. These notebooks are written in three languages (French, English and Hebrew) testify Bracha L. Ettinger’s dual activity and constitute a privileged point of view for understanding her practice and her thinking. Bracha L. Ettinger’s notebooks are displayed in a site-specific and unitary installation in the historical galleries of Castello di Rivoli called “Room of the Sleeping Putti” that used to be the King’s room and that was decorated in 1720. The vitrines, where the notebooks are presented are in dialog with the frescoes of the ceiling, creating an organic experience for the visitors who can move freely to see closely each notebook in a meditative atmosphere.
On the occasion of Bracha L. Ettinger’ solo exhibition, Castello di Rivoli Research Institute (CRRI) will receive the exhibited notebooks from the artist, and will start organizing their digitalization, transcription and translation. At the end of the exhibition this material will remain available to worldwide scholars and researchers for consultation in the CRRI premises, located within the Museum Library.
The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual (English/Italian) publication with new essays by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Marcella Beccaria and Andrea Viliani including a selection of images from the artist’s notebooks.
On the occasion of the opening of Bracha L. Ettinger. Bracha’s Notebooks, on November 3 at 6 pm, Castello di Rivoli hosts in the Museum Theater a conversation between the artist Bracha L. Ettinger, Chief Curator and Curator of the Collections Marcella Beccaria, and Head and Curator of CRRI Castello di Rivoli Research Institute Andrea Viliani.
Castello di Rivoli CRRI’s activities are supported by
The exhibition and publication are supported by Artis, New York; Richard Saltoun Gallery, London; Braverman Gallery, Tel Aviv; Ufficio Culturale Ambasciata di Israele, Rome and by the Museum Benefactor Andrea Ruben Levi
Biography
Bracha L. Ettinger (Tel Aviv, 1948) lives and works between Paris and Tel Aviv. Solo exhibitions devoted to Ettinger have been presented by numerous international institutions, including: Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2019); UB Anderson Gallery, University at Buffalo (2018); Silesian Museum (Muzeum Śląskie), Katowice (2017); 14th Istanbul Biennial (2015); Museum of the City of St. Petersburg (2013); Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Angers (2011); Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona (2010); Freud Museum, London (2009); Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki (2006); Drawing Center, New York (2001). Her work has been presented in numerous group museum exhibitions, as at Villa Tamaris, La Seyne-sur-Mer; Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin; Museion, Bolzano; Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin; Bonnier Konsthall, Stockholm; MAS/KMSKA Museums, Antwerp; National Center for Contemporary Art, Museum of Modern Art, Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Centre Pompidou, Paris; National Museum for Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Bracha L. Ettinger is the author of numerous articles and books on art, psychoanalysis, aesthetics, and ethics including Regard et Espace-de-bord matrixial (La lettre volee, 1999); The Matrixial Borderspace (essays from 1994-1999), (University of Minnesota Press, 2006); And My Heart Wound-space (Istanbul Biennial, 2015); Matrixial Subjectivity, Aesthetics, Ethics, Vol 1, edited by Griselda Pollock, 1990-2000 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020). Her writings have been translated into French, German, Hebrew, Polish and Spanish. Bracha L. Ettinger is Marcel Duchamp Chair and Professor of Psychoanalysis and Art at the European Graduate School / EGS.