Ph. Michael-Brzezinski
From October 29, 2025 to January 10, 2026

Iran Do Espírito Santo. Tracing Thought. 2002-2025

Iran do Espírito Santo. Tracciare il pensiero.  2002-2025
(Tracing Thought. 2002-2025)
Mazzoleni, Turin
29 October 2025 – 10 January 2026

Mazzoleni presents Tracciare il pensiero. 2002-2025 (Tracing Thought. 2002-2025), the first solo exhibition in Turin by Brazilian artist Iran do Espírito Santo. Opening on 29 October during Torino Art Week, the exhibition spans nearly 1,000 squared metres of the gallery’s principal exhibition space, offering a unique retrospective insight into Espírito Santo’s practice over the past two decades.

An internationally renowned artist with works held in major collections including MAXXI in Rome, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Espírito Santo conceived the Turin exhibition inspired by the architectural qualities of the gallery space. These characteristics allowed him to reflect on his practice over the past two decades, focusing on two key concepts at the heart of his research: light and scale.

Press release
Iran do Espírito Santo, b. 1963
Untitled (Keyhole), 2002
Granite
44.5 x 20 x 20 cm - - 17 1/2 x 7 7/8 x 7 7/8 in
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The symbolic path of Tracing Thought opens poignantly with Untitled (Key Hole) (2002), a work the artist chose to exhibit after seeing the gallery’s structure and its sequence of rooms aligned along a central axis. The corridor, Espírito Santo explains, suggests “an almost cinematic visual experience” that guides the viewers gaze and interacts with the artworks in each room. From this piece, the conceptual threads that run throughout the exhibition emerge.

The theme of scale is explored both semantically and physically: the scale of objects, proportion, and also chromatic scale, as in Switch (2025).  This new site-specific wall painting belongs to one of the artist’s most iconic and globally recognised series. Composed of 56 shades of grey, Espírito Santo explains:

To me, wall pieces are “resistance pieces”, that are there, despite our commodity-obsessed society. The ephemerality of it becomes part of the condition of having it done, and maybe adds another poetic layer, like an art of time as well as space.

Video

Scale, understood as a unit of measure and proportion, is also magnified in two extraordinary new works produced specifically for this exhibition: Metro and Compasso (Meter and Compass). As is often the case in Espírito Santo’s work, both are built exactly like their real-life counterparts, but on a monumental scale; the compass stands 1.80 metres tall. Here, the artist reflects on the aura and function of the object, transforming it into a metaphor for the human condition: objects caught between the world of ideas (the geometric and measuring principles they replicate in scale) and reality, the desire to become functional things.

Iran do Espírito Santo, b. 1963
Globe 10, 2012
Marble
24.7 x 25.2 x 25.2 cm - - 9 3/4 x 9 7/8 x 9 7/8 in
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Iran do Espírito Santo, b. 1963
Globe 13, 2012
Marble
15.7 x 25.7 x 25.7 cm - - 6 1/8 x 10 1/8 x 10 1/8 in
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Iran do Espírito Santo, b. 1963
Globe 11, 2012
Marble
20.7 x 14.8 x 14.8 cm - - 8 1/8 x 5 7/8 x 5 7/8 in
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The exhibition is completed by historical works such as Globe (2011) (ethereal white marble sculptures), Reflexive Windows 10 (2020) (black granite that evokes the reflections of windows at night); and the Curtains series (2025), presented in a new vertical version. These meticulous graphite drawings, inspired by the folds of fabric, are composed of intricately drawn lines repeated at one-millimetre intervals. These lines trace rhythms of scale and proportion that transform the flatness of the page, offering a conceptual meditation on the tension between lightness and weight, between the world of ideas and the material world — subtle variations that shift perception, for the artist as much as the viewer.

Iran do Espírito Santo, b. 1963
Reflexive Window 3, 2020
Granite
203.7 x 103 x 2 cm - - 80 1/4 x 40 1/2 x 3/4 in
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 I draw constantly, out of both psychological and physical necessity. But when I draw ‘seriously,’ with a clear purpose, it’s like building something that has mass, yet is also partially freed from the tyranny of physics.

Iran do Espírito Santo, b. 1963
Red Bulb 2, 2009
Crystal and teflon
15 x 11 x 11 cm (bulb: 13,5 x 6,5 x 6,5 cm) - - 5 7/8 x 4 3/8 x 4 3/8 in
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On the occasion of the exhibition, a catalogue will be published featuring a critical text by Jacopo Crivelli Visconti. The volume will present the works shown in the Turin exhibition as well as those in the subsequent show at Mazzoleni Milan, running from January 21 to March 28, 2026.

During the Art Week, the exhibition will be open with special visiting hours.
Art Night: Saturday, 1 November 2025, 6-11 pm
TAG – Art Coffee Breakfast: Friday 31 October, Saturday 1, Sunday 2 November 2025, 10 am-12 pm. Hosted by TAG Torino Art Galleries

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