Rosa Barba – In a Perpetual Now

Rosa Barba is an Italian-German visual artist and filmmaker currently exhibiting at the newly re-opened Neue Nationalgalerie. The museum is the final project of renowned architect Mies van der Rohe, led by the leading architectural firm David Copperfield. Widely known for its 20th Century Modern art, the museum’s permanent collection includes an extensive number of artworks by recognisable national and international artists such as Francis Bacon, Hannah Hoch, Max Ernst, Salvador Dali, Paul Klee, Gerhard Richter, to name a few. With the re-opening of the Neue Nationalgalerie, Rosa Barba is one of the first contemporary artists to showcase their work alongside installations by Alexander Calder.

Barba’s exhibition, In a Perpetual Now is an extension to the history and philosophy of the Mies van der Rohe and the Neue Nationalgalerie, with Barba drawing inspiration from the late architect. Adopting van der Rohe’s philosophy on architecture as a “new way of life” of a non-hierarchal balance, the exhibition is an experimental exploration discussing time and space as an “unlimited continuum.”

The exhibition, which coincided with Giornata del Contemporaneo – a significant cultural event in Italy that celebrates the Italian contemporary art scene, the artist was selected by the Ambassador of Italy, HE Varricchio to be the honoured artist this year. To celebrate the cultural event, the Ambassador hosted an intimate dinner and artist talk with the Barba and Dr. Joachim Jäger at the Embassy of Italy where SLEEK was a guest. When asked about celebrating Giornata del Contemporaneo in Germany, the Ambassador stated, “museums, private collections or festivals, everywhere you meet Italian artists of different generations” and with it, his intention is to continue “the fruitful exchange between Italy and Germany [that] already has its roots in the Renaissance.” Praising Barba for her exploration of perspectives, he added, “her artistic work puts together texts, sounds and images until they create a narrative of their own.”

Creating a narrative of their own is exactly what to expect of the exhibition, In a Perpetual Now, which welcomes the viewer into the dimmed space occupied with large film machines, ticking and flickering light and sound that travels in between the exhibition space freely. The influence of van der Rohe’s is easily recognisable in Barba’s installations, and most evidently in Hear, There, Where the Echos Are (2016/2021) – an interactive sculptural piece with synchronised light projection, activated and rhythmised by a live sound performance of drummer Chad Taylor. Additionally, Barba’s Blind Volumes (2021), embodies van der Rohe’s spirit, via a cinematic introduction to the experimental relationship to space. By blurring the lines between the mediums, the artist challenges the viewer through a maze of light and sound to determine what exactly is being seen or heard, resulting in a hypnotic visual and sensory experience that allows Barba to achieve her own “non-hierarchal balance.” In this way, In a Perpetual Now serves as a metaphoric representation of the layers between the past, present, and future and Barba successfully fulfils her intention to dissolve the notion of time in the way we are trained to understand it.

Rosa Barba In a Perpetual Now is on until 16th Jan 2022.