The artist Esther Stocker (born 1974, South Tyrolean based in Vienna) focuses on the vision and perception of space, approached from an minimalist and social perspective. Her paintings, sculptures and installations in public spaces (railway and underground stations, museums and other public spaces) stand out for their recurring geometric style and the use of a palette limited to black, white and grey.

In collaboration with the Mart, the Municipality of Trento has commissioned the artist to create a site-specific work in the pedestrian underpass that connects the city centre to the new intermodal public transport hub. This is the most significant urban redevelopment project in the city of Trento, involving the entire ‘former SIT’ area.

In the weeks following the opening of the exhibition, the artist will work on the project, which will be inaugurated by the end of the year. The pedestrian underpass will become a public work of art, helping to make the city’s transport hub a lively, welcoming place that can foster new connections between space, the citizens, user enjoyment and creativity. Stocker’s project will expand the exhibition into the urban space, in an innovative and experimental way, in line with the Galleria Civica's functions.

The title of the exhibition is borrowed from the novel of the same name by Sandro Veronesi, and is an evocative reference to the nature of Esther Stocker’s work. The artist’s works explore the infinite possible combinations of simple elements, which nevertheless are subjected to sudden distortions, ‘deviations’ from the seemingly perfect order, alterations that create visual and perceptual instability.

The exhibition features more than 50 works, most of which are unknown, produced by the artist over the last five years: canvases, sculptures, environmental installations and a site-specific work designed for the spaces of the Galleria Civica.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue to be published shortly by the Mart, with essays by Gabriele Lorenzoni, curator of the exhibition, Federico Mazzonelli, art historian and independent curator, Angel Moja Garcia, critic and curator of contemporary art, and Theres Rohde, director of the Museums für Konkrete Kunst (MKK) in Ingolstadt.