Between August and October 2019 a new chapter in Laura Viale’s project Inframondo took place at the Emma Kunz Grotto, giving shape to twenty-five large format frottages.
The grotto is situated in the ancient Roman stone quarry of Würenlos in Switzerland. Here the Swiss visionary artist, healer, and researcher Emma Kunz (1892-1963) discovered a special place of energy and vitality which she frequented throughout her life.
Inframondo (Underworld, 2012-ongoing), which Viale conceived whilst undergoing some endoscopic investigations, is a growing series of drawings produced in various caves and cavities, points of contact between inside and outside the planet.
The drawings are done by means of physical contact with the sites chosen, by resting sheets of graph paper on the walls of the grotto and running a graphite bar over them to trace shapes and protuberances.
Inframondo symbolically explores areas of intersection between the external world and interiority.
It also suggests a re-positioning of man in nature: a dimension where uncertainty outweighs control, but at the same time it gives an opportunity for unexpected points of view. In fact, the resulting images are very different from what one had imagined when inside the cave whilst glimpsing or touching the inner surfaces.
Twenty of these new frottages were presented at the exhibition Number, Rhythm, Transformation - Contemporary Dialogues with Emma Kunz, curated by Régine Bonnefoit and Sara Petrucci in collaboration with the Heinrich Gebert Kulturstiftung Appenzell at Kunsthalle Ziegelhütte, Appenzell, 2020.
