This exhibition is based on the 1961 sci-fi novel Solaris by Stanislas Lem, and the eponymous film by Andrei Tarkovsky, a fable of metaphysics and memory describing a visit to a distant planet by an expedition, which is affected by strange phenomena that seem provoked by a vast, protoplasmic, protean ocean. This mysterious mass behaves like a giant brain capable of reproducing physical entities that emerge from their past.
With its glass panels on the façade, its panoramic openings, its footbridges and gangways, the architecture of the building designed by Kengo Kuma looks like a vessel in which the intrigue of Solaris is replayed, with works echoing the universe described by the novel and the film.
They act as links in a story chain forming possible narratives activated by the path of the “Solarist” visitor. Solaris projects the Frac towards a future conceived by artists—those researchers and inventors of new forms—in that dedicated exhibition space, a place of memory and multiple metamorphoses.
From Io Burgard to Richard Baquié, from Ugo Schiavi to Jeppe Hein, from Peter Klasen to Clarisse Hahn to Regina Demina, this exhibition is based on a selection of works acquired within the past three years, presented alongside historical works from the archives.
