When Gina Proenza was invited to create a contemporary companion piece to Leopold Robert’s works, she immediately headed to San Gimignano, the Italian village which Robert had chosen as the setting for his work on ‘Autumn’; his painting of the grape harvest would never materialise. Proenza was fascinated by the windows – always closed – of the many towers that lend the village its picturesque quality.  Her creative approach to the project mirrors the multi-step process that was needed to engrave and distribute Robert’s paintings. First, she took photos of the windows, then asked a Neapolitan artist to make paintings of them. The next step was to transform the painted images into kites and release them into the air. If paintings are windows on the world, the bars that obstruct them are set free, their undulations casting shadows on the fountain-like sculptural installations as they float up to dream-filled skies.

At the same time, Proenza had a brass band from La Chaux-de-Fonds parade through the museum to the beat of popular tunes. Yet, there is little trace of this happening. One might even question whether it took place were it not for the suggestion by the artist herself that the place where art actually resides – the ice palace, the castle in Spain – is in one’s imagination.

Gina Proenza was born in 1994 in Bogotá (Colombia). She lives and works in Lausanne.