The exhibit at the Museum of Chinese Art and Ethnography, from December 13, 2024 to February 15, 2025, is an invitation to explore the territories of interiority and landscape through the art of Kerol Montagna. Extended until April 6th
The term Wandern, typical of the German romantic tradition, represents wandering, the act of walking as a form of physical and mental exploration. By the art of walking, a humang being not only accompanies his thoughts, but finds and rediscovers himself through the observation and discovery of the surrounding world. Splendid ceramics that become a means to explore the relationship between the object and the exhibition space, together with bronze and collage creations that explore nature, capturing fragments of nature and transforming them into artistic forms that evoke landscapes.
The works are born from this practice of exploration. During her walks in the German woods, the artist collected bark that, thanks to the lost wax technique, she transformed into bronze: this material becomes a guardian of memory, immortalizing the fragility of the bark in a lasting sign. The bark burns in the fusion process, disappearing to make room for an object that preserves its imprint, a symbol of the relationship between the ephemeral and the permanent, between nature and humanity. Another fundamental aspect of Kerol Montagna's work is the use of ceramics, which in her hands takes on a meaning deeply linked to the manual ability and moldability of this material, which responds to our every minimal touch.
The ceramics detach themselves from their previously inhabited contexts as to enter into a more complex museum experience. The display cases that house them are transformed into a sort of trees, creating an environment in which the works nestle as part of an organic, almost natural landscape. Ceramics, like bronze, become a means to explore the relationship between the object and the exhibition space, highlighting the physical detachment but maintaining an invisible link with the observer.
Alongside her bronze and ceramic sculptures, Kerol Montagna also explores the landscape through the collage technique, mainly using paper. These works represent her ability to capture fragments of nature and transform them into artistic forms that evoke interior and physical landscapes. One of the most evocative examples is the collage entitled "The rhubarb and the oat field", where leaves and natural surfaces are immortalized in paper, preserving the essence of the organic element. The delicate textures of leaves and plants emerge from the context, recalling the fragility and ephemeral beauty of nature: this process recalls the concept of imprint, a recurring theme in Kerol's work, where nature leaves the sign of its existence not only physically but also metaphorically.
In the exhibit, the collages guide the viewer along a visual path that, like the romantic walking of the Wandern, becomes an exploration through cultural and natural landscapes. These works, created specifically for the exhibition at the Parma museum, dialogue with the theme of exploration and discovery, creating a sense of continuity between the bronze sculptures, the ceramics and the natural landscape evoked by the collages.
"The exhibition - explains Chiara Allegri, director of the Museum of Chinese Art and Ethnography and curator of the exhibition - is a journey through the natural and cultural landscape, where ceramics, collages and installations dialogue between memory and transformation. I am thrilled to host such an innovative artist who, through her work, manages to evoke the essence of the 'Wandern', a wandering that invites reflection and rediscovery of oneself, going to the roots of the pleasure of pure and original feeling that leads to intimate exploration and the discovery of the self even before the Other".
The exhibition Wandern, open until February 15, 2025, with a strong therapeutic character, invites the viewer to walk among the traces left by the artist, exploring cultural and natural, physical and interior landscapes. Through the art of Kerol Montagna, walking becomes an act of research, discovery and meditation, where time, memory and matter intertwine to leave lasting imprints..
Biographical notes
Kerol Montagna was born in Parma in 1987. She graduated from the P. Toschi art school in Parma, majoring in Surveying and Cataloguing of Cultural Heritage in 2006. She completed the three-year course in Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna in 2011 and subsequently in 2014 she received the Diploma at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. In Germany, she collaborates with various museums and cultural institutions as a sculptor, teacher and in the field of museum education. Among the most numerous and continuous collaborations: Museum Villa Stuck, Kunstgiesserei München, Feierwerk and Kindermuseum München.
In 2011, commissioned by KÜR München (Atelier for young artists), she founded and manages the Kür ceramics laboratory, a laboratory for the training of young artists as well as a meeting place for a multi-generational audience.
In Parma she currently works at the Borgofiore laboratory and collaborates with the Museum of Chinese Art and Ethnography with a program of ceramic workshops. She exhibits her works in Italy and Germany. Her research ranges from public art and land art projects, as well as ceramic works and then collages and paper installations.
Info: Museo d’Arte Cinese ed Etnografico, viale San Martino, 8 – 43123 Parma
Tel: 0521-257337 - web: www.museocineseparma.org - mail:
Opening Hours: From Tuesday to Saturday: from 9am to 1pm and from 3pm to 7pm. Sunday: from 3pm to 7pm
Ticket: € 5 (standard) € 2.00 (under 18) which allows you to visit the entire museum collection.
Contact us at 0521-257.337.
