Where do we find ourselves under the skies that protect us (and simultaneously expose us)? 

 

In ancient times, from the observation of the stars, primitive cultures already started representing celestial bodies in rock art.

 

In the 21st century, in the light of Einstein’s theory of relativity, the standard cosmological model adopted was that the expansion of the universe is accelerating (in its measureless 14 billion years), in a homogeneous - no position in space being different from another - and isotropic - its characteristics being the same in any direction - way.

 

Carla Barchini, Lebanese artist, proposes a poetic spectral shift of the universe, antithetical to its (supposed) homogeneity and isotropy.

 Here, space is specific and its features are unique.

 

The representation of Carla’s universe is the fruit of this process (and a series of others), happy accidents that have been contaminated by her sensitive experience of space and thus constitute palpable objects.

 

The various media - that are found, recovered and transformed by the artist - become the cosmos, the universe in its entirety, alive. 

 

Much of the universe consists of dark energy, still an abstract notion for us.

Carla Barchini’s cosmos is concrete and contains the affective matter of immeasurable things. Amongst the raw elements, the air, the mountains, life, and its continuous cosmic explosions, is a trail of stardust. Step into this universe, perceive it with your senses, get carried away by it: Dark matters.

Michelle Sommer - Curator 2016