When the body enters into dialogue with the more than human world

IVAM presents I Call You Body , an exhibition that puts the artistic practices of Irene Grau and Marco Giordano into dialogue based on a central question: the relationship, but also the tension, between the human body and the more than human world. The exhibition, curated by Alicia Ventura and Bernardo Follini, will be open to the public from July 16 to October 25, 2026.

The project expands the idea of body beyond the human and includes plant species, minerals and other forms of matter, but also the infrastructures that are part of urban ecosystems. The title itself, I call you body , alludes to the act of recognizing these natural or artificial elements as bodies, that is, as subjects endowed with their own essence with which we can establish a relationship.

From this shared approach, Irene Grau and Marco Giordano develop two very different ways of approaching materiality and the relationships it generates. Their practices start from different positions, languages and techniques, but they agree on understanding art as a space of contact and transformation.

In the case of Irene Grau, the artist's body becomes the main means of access to the landscape. Her work is based on actions that allow her to traverse, inhabit and intervene in natural environments, establishing a physical relationship with the material. The resulting works are not only documents or traces of these performative actions, but systems in which natural elements acquire the status of a vocabulary of their own that enters into dialogue with the history of painting and the representation of landscape.

The exhibition presents a selection of works belonging to the cycles brillo abrigo (2024) and A hierro (2023-2024), together with a new production conceived specifically for the exhibition. In A hierro , grau works from the body towards nature. The canvases are dragged, rubbed and stained with oxide and water, while the vegetation becomes a multiplicity of brushes. The grass thus leaves its own mark on the canvas and records the physical action exercised during the process.

The force of the drag, associated with the human action of the mines, is inscribed on the surface of the works and coexists with the delicacy and fluidity of the water. The landscape ceases to be a represented image to become an agent of the painting itself. It is nature, in a way, who paints the canvas.

Abrigo , on the other hand, is a project developed around Altamira that connects two fundamental issues: the presence of water, understood through movement, and the possibility of refuge. In this work, the landscape appears as a space that can be traversed, inhabited and protected, but also as a material capable of modifying artistic practice itself.

To these two series is added a new production created from the dust generated in the process of manufacturing ceramic tiles in the Castellón area. The industrial and territorial matter thus becomes a new element of research, connecting the artist's practice with the production processes that transform landscapes.

Marco Giordano approaches the issue from a different perspective. In his work, the body does not appear directly, but is suggested. His research starts from the word, sound and materials to construct a sculptural language that contains an intrinsically performative dimension. The matter is transformed, recombined and reorganized to generate forms that also refer to contemporary social and political issues.

For I Call You Body , Giordano constructs a new ecosystem based on several work cycles, articulated around the large sculptural installation Gridlocks (2026). The pieces are formed by joints of aluminum, copper, fiberglass and plastic, materials associated with the energy infrastructures that run through cities and which, despite being essential for their functioning, often remain invisible.

The materials for Gridlocks come from the dismantling of cables in Glasgow. From this recovered material, Giordano begins a long-term investigation into the energy transition and the productive and extractive structures that make it possible. The sculptures thus cease to be simple abstract forms to become indications of a much broader system, in which energy, industry, territory and politics are closely linked.

The exhibition brings together pre-existing works by the two artists and new productions conceived for the IVAM spaces. Painting, photography, sculpture and installation share a journey in which the boundaries between nature and artifice, body and matter, landscape and infrastructure become increasingly permeable.