30 March 2024 - 27 April 2024
Project Type: Collective Exhibition
Venue: Museo Santa Chiara, Noto, Sicily
Curator: Melanie Erixon
Artists: Patrick Dalli, Paul Scerri, Darren Tanti

Body Language

About the Exhibition

Curated by Melanie Erixon, Body Language brought together Patrick Dalli, Paul Scerri, and Darren Tanti at Museo Santa Chiara in Noto, Sicily. The exhibition revolved around the human body as subject, narrative, and overarching theme, allowing each artist's distinct language to approach physical presence, vulnerability, and human experience differently.

The works were not created specifically for the exhibition. Instead, the three artists were brought together through their existing and distinctive bodies of work, making this the first time they exhibited together while presenting pieces that span numerous years and, in some cases, decades.

The Historical Context

Tanti's selected works are rooted in specific contemporary contexts. Across them, recurring references to conflict, war, and catastrophe place the figures within scarred urban spaces or devastated natural environments.

Through these paintings and mixed-media works, Tanti addresses the impact of human-caused conflict on both the shared world and individual existence. The body appears graphic, vulnerable, and visibly marked by its surroundings, with standing nudes often confronting the viewer directly.

At times, the figures suggest detachment, as if incredulous about what they are experiencing or indifferent to it. This emotional distance reflects a society that has grown desensitised to pain and destruction.

Only in Longing for Home does the viewer sense relief and calm. Elsewhere, figures occupy uncanny spaces built from disparate realities, with a photomontage-like fragmentation that amplifies the dissonance between human presence and unstable surroundings.