Swiss Institute presents “Retour à Rome”, a collective of artists: Anne-Laure Franchette, Vidya Gastaldon, Clemens Klopfenstein, Marie Matusz, Gianni Motti, Uriel Orlow, Denis Savary, Rico Scagliola & Michael Meier, Ian Wooldridge and Mario Merz.

Through a non-canonical setting, the exhibition offers an alternative look at the idea of landscape as a pictorial genre. The landscape genre, widespread in Rome among French painters in the nineteenth century, has influenced our way of looking at the world. Today the landscape is no longer a genre strictly linked to painting: “Retour à Rome” makes the image in motion the medium that more than any other is capable of bringing back memories. Anne – Laure Franchette encloses fragments of vegetation collected in the garden of the Institute in small transparent resin plates. Vidya Gastaldon 's new abstract film acts as a portal for the perception of interior landscapes; rhythm and music pervade the work, giving shape to a series of introspective visions. For Clemens Klopfenstein it is a real return to Rome: the Swiss director shot part of his film Geschichte der Nacht at night during his stay at the Swiss Institute in 1979.