Liliana Moro: Andante con moto

The practices of listening and engagement with the audience are defining features of Liliana Moro’s work. For the first time, Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein is now devoting a major solo show to the artist, who was born in Milan in 1961. The show spans the period from her early work of the late 1980s to her current output, and it also includes a number of new works. Above all, this retrospective exhibition probes a fundamental aspect of Moro’s work: sound. Borrowed from the world of music, the title alludes to this.

Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein holds a considerable number of Italian artworks in its collection, above all from the Arte Povera movement. Moro trained at the Brera Academy, Milan—at a time when Arte Povera was finding its way into art academies and museum collections and a process of historicization was just beginning. With this display, Kunstmuseum is presenting an Italian artist from the subsequent generation. Her work arose in the moment of a violent breakaway from the past and from a desire for freedom beyond the questions of the time. 

From her early beginnings until the present, Moro has explored different means of expression in her work, including sound, spoken and written language, sculpture, performance, drawing, collage and video. Often her works are based on everyday objects and situations, inviting the audience to glimpse behind the seemingly obvious. Each of her artistic gestures demands active participation from the visitors, be it by entering, cowering down or listening. Moro’s practice of sustained listening encourages us to heighten our attention, inviting us to become physically, intellectually and emotionally involved. In this way, listening becomes a shared experience.

Originally, Moro had planned to study scenography; although she later chose painting, her passion for the theatre remained. Her strong affinity for the poet and playwright Samuel Beckett, whose writing forms the basis for many of her works, testifies to this. Beckett freed the stage from all excess, even using the stage’s space as a sculptural element. Moro shares Beckett’s all-embracing view of space and body in space. For example, in his Krapp’s Last Tape (1958), an elderly man listens to a recording of his own voice; this listening forms the starting point for Moro’s new artwork Andante con moto (2023).

Liliana Moro (b. 1961 in Milan) studied painting at the Accademia di Brera in Milan. She was co-founder of the artist-run exhibition space Spazio di via Lazzaro Palazzi and editor of Tiracorrendo magazine (1989–93). Her works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in numerous institutions, including: Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome (2021); Italian Pavilion, 58th Venice Biennale (2019); Milan Triennale (2015); MAMbo, Bologna (2013); Palazzo Grassi, Venice (2008); MoMA PS1, New York (1999); Castello di Rivoli, Turin (1994 and 2021); Aperto, 45th Venice Biennale (1993); Documenta IX, Kassel (1992). She lives and works in Milan.

A Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein production in cooperation with PAC Milano.
Curated by Letizia Ragaglia.

Performance by Liliana Moro and Giovanna Luè
Saturday, November 18, 2023, 5:30pm
For the opening Moro, together with her friend Giovanna Luè, is re-enacting the performance Studio per un probabile equilibrio in movimento [Study for a likely balance in motion], which was conceived for Virgilio Sieni in 1997. 

The show is accompanied by a publication (German/English) with texts by Fabio Cherstich and Milovan Farronato, as well as an interview by Letizia Ragaglia with the artist.

The exhibition travels in 2024 to the PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, and to the Magazzino Italian Art Foundation, Cold Spring, NY.

The exhibition is presented under the patronage of the Italian Embassy in Bern, Switzerland.

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