Yves Dana. Opere recenti

The exhibition, curated by Kosme de Barañano, presents a selection of seven works created between 2005 and 2006 by the Swiss artist, one of the most innovative figures of his generation (Alexandria, Egypt, 1959). The exhibition offers an overview of Dana’s recent works, characterized by the use of basalt and Lunel stone—materials he began using after his 1996 trip to Egypt, a pivotal inspiration for the launch of the Stelae series.

In Dana’s creative journey, three key moments can be identified: the first is linked to verticality, evoking the form of the obelisk; the second focuses on the horizontal motif, symbolizing contact with the earth; and the third is represented by bowls and sacred objects of votive offerings, characterized by their formal mass, animated by cuts, fractures, irregularities, and shifts of their axis from the center of gravity.

Dana’s obelisks – writes Kosme de Barañano – are examples of the immutability of narrow human time, yet they rise like sundials, hard basalt stars that know their fate is to dissolve into the eternal sands of the desert.

Dana’s works represent a meditation on time, shaped in sculptural terms. His sculptures, removed from the urgencies of contemporary life and the speed of our century, turn instead toward the distant era of great mythologies—toward the luminous serenity of dreams, and that inner memory each of us carries within. His pieces appear tinged with a desert-like archaeology, as if discovered in a riverbed or at the heart of a volcano. They are, therefore, a celebration of life in its primordial energy.

The exhibition is accompanied by a publication featuring images of the works on display at the Foundation and the curator’s text.