emoZone

The Exhibition

“emoZone” is Manfred Pernice’s first institutional exhibition in Italy (Hildesheim, 1963). In the second-floor salons of Palazzo Caracciolo d’Avellino, a selection of works from the Fondazione Morra Greco Collection is presented together for the first time. On the Foundation’s third floor, a new site-specific project, conceived in dialogue with moments of the militaristic architecture of Castel Sant’Elmo, unfolds across the entire length of the exhibition space. The installation on this level lends the exhibition its title. Conceived as an immersive sculptural environment, emoZone combines newly produced works with bodies of work from pre-existing series such as meinfeld/anticorpi (2023).

Among Pernice’s signature motifs—including series such as “Dosen” (cans), “Peilung” (direction finding), and “Kassetten” (cassettes)—the works on view on the second floor mark key moments in the artist’s three-decade-long practice. Retracing the formal and compositional development of his sculptural language, historical works such as “Dresdner Stollen” (1997) and “Bianca” (2010) enter into dialogue with the Foundation’s architecturally stratified spaces. Spanning more than a decade of production, other installations, including “Restepfanne” (2002), engage the institutional context by adopting display strategies.

On the third floor, beginning with a project centered on ideas of unease, unrest in a comfort-zone, the installation’s title evokes the idea of an area with a special status—a field of forces that visitors are invited to traverse both physically and emotionally. Like earlier projects such as Fiat at Künstlerhaus Stuttgart (1997), Tutti at Salzburger Kunstverein (2010), … RINO (with artist Martin Städeli in 2011, dedicated to the sculptor Marino Marini) or >accrochage<, emoZone functions as a linguistic move that, starting from a material and figurative premise, ultimately questions the very act of exhibition-making.

By intervening in existing works (anticorpo 1, 2024–2026, Brücke 2, 2017–2026, or Lulu – Cassette, 2016), alongside others produced specifically for the occasion, “emoZone” takes shape as an area for relax and respite, alluding to the commercial spaces of museum bookshops and cafés. Beyond this field, a series of sculptures inspired by defensive architectures rise into the space, encapsulating a paradox of the contemporary condition: the continuous circulation of people, goods, and values—constantly regulated and negotiated—behind which latent impulses of combat and defense persist.

The exhibition marks a moment in the artist’s decades-long acquaintance with the city of Naples and with Fondazione Morra Greco, which has supported and closely followed Pernice’s work since the early stages of his career.

Manfred Pernice’s work connects to the theme of the third edition of the EDI Global Forum by observing the images that inhabit our daily urban landscape. Concrete bollards, planters, construction fences, benches, and other temporary infrastructures – elements that typically go unnoticed – become signs to be scrutinized. By bringing the background to the forefront, Pernice highlights the ideological weight and the underlying logic governing public space, the regulation of the flow of goods and people, and the systems of control and economic valorization.

Manfred Pernice (Hildesheim, 1963) lives and works in Berlin. Since the 1990s, his research has inhabited the intersection of sculpture, architecture, and civil engineering, utilizing industrial materials such as particleboard, cardboard, and concrete. His modular structures evoke urban infrastructure and packaging systems, challenging the ways in which objects organize space and our daily perception.

His work is a profound investigation into how objects are presented, preserved, and organized in space: his pieces often function as modules within broader systems, questioning our perception of the places we traverse every day. This trajectory has led him to exhibit at landmark institutions such as Museum Ludwig in Cologne (2007), Secession in Vienna (2010), Haus der Kunst in Munich (2013), and Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (2016).

An undisputed figure on the global scene, Pernice has participated in pivotal milestones of contemporary art history, including the Berlin Biennale (1998), Manifesta 3 (2000), Documenta 11 (2001), the Venice Biennale (2001 and 2003), and Skulptur-Projekte Münster (2007). Through his installations, the artist transforms raw matter into a sophisticated and complex reflection on the contemporary landscape.

Project co-funded by FSC 2021-2027 resources, DGR 616 2024. Strategic Plan for Culture and Tourism 2024/2025 – EDI 2025 Contemporary Art Exhibitions Global Forum Project.