At Collezione Maramotti, Viviane Sassen’s largest Italian solo show to date dives into dreams, death, and desire — reminding us we’re made of stardust, and our time is fleeting.
Marking two decades of mesmerizing imagery, Collezione Maramotti presents This Body Made of Stardust, a vivid retrospective of Dutch photographer Viviane Sassen, tracing two decades of her work from 2005 to 2025, alongside several fresh pieces created exclusively for the show. Curated personally by Sassen, it’s part of the Fotografia Europea festival’s twentieth anniversary program, aptly titled “Being Twenty,” and promises the deepest exploration yet of her practice in Italy.
Drawing from the timeless symbolism of memento mori, Sassen layers lush visuals that slip fluidly between life’s abundance and its ultimate fragility. Human forms, landscapes, and textures—from delicate earth to elusive shadows—emerge as metaphors for death, underscoring the transient beauty that defines existence. Her intuitive, non-linear arrangements echo dreams, merging reality with fantasy, challenging the viewer’s perception at every twist. Interacting poetically with sculptures from Collezione Maramotti by Evgeny Antufiev, Kaarina Kaikkonen, Fabrizio Prevedello, and TARWUK, Sassen continues her ongoing exploration, reassembling familiar photographs into new narratives and dialogues.
Sassen, who identifies equally as photographer and sculptor, bends the photographic medium into her distinct vision—one of layered meanings, deceptive surfaces, and surreal compositions. Her images often blur lines between mediums, seamlessly incorporating paint, ink, and collage, expanding photography’s visual boundaries. Her manipulation of light and shadow transcends mere technique, delving instead into an examination of human desires and inner struggles.
Visitors encounter striking juxtapositions: bodies embraced by oversized leaves, mysterious organisms sprawling wildly, and sculptural limbs disjointed yet gracefully poised against natural elements. The compositions remain provocatively open-ended, inviting reinterpretation upon every viewing. In her signature style, Sassen gently subverts the familiar adage of human mortality, transforming it into a meditation on love and transience—an intimate reminder that we are all ephemeral beings, shimmering briefly in cosmic dust.
Accompanied by a catalogue featuring essays by Federica Angelucci of STEVENSON, Cape Town, and renowned art critic Marco Scotini, the exhibition runs from April 27 to July 27, 2025, offering an immersive reflection on the complexity—and undeniable beauty—of life’s finite dance.
This Body Made of Stardust is open with complimentary admission at Collezione Maramotti, Thursday and Friday from 2:30 pm to 6:30 pm, Saturday and Sunday from 10:30 am to 6:30 pm, excluding May 1.
