Lucia Masu

Artist Lucia Masu presents her "Voie de disparition" exhibition

With Voie de disparition, Lucia Masu presents visual fragments taken from the urban fabric of the town of Sierre, asking the public about the memory of the places that surround them.

Mechanically extracted from the walls of the former Halles Usego, which are now destined to disappear, these photographed samples come from various graffiti that have accumulated over time on the outside walls of the building, on the side facing the railway tracks. These stratigraphies - studies of the succession of different layers - carried out on site and under the microscope bear witness to the multiple layers of time and memory of this site, soon to be demolished to make way for the new building housing the École de design et haute école d'art (EDHEA) and the École de couture du Valais. Silently and symbolically revealing the passage of time, but also that of the train along the track, these photographs become visual fragments attesting to the existence of this special place. Each piece or sample taken from these walls can also be seen as an ecosystem in its own right, harbouring microscopic life imperceptible to the naked eye, capable of surviving the passage of time and holding many stories at its heart. Lucia Masu captures them, freezes them and saves them by transcribing them into six colourful photographs that are at once scientific, abstract and organic, creating a series that is as minimalist as it is poetic.

BIOGRAPHY
A graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Sassari, Italy, Lucia Masu completed her training with a certificate in painting restoration in Florence, before completing a Master of Arts in Public Spheres at EDHEA in 2021. Winner of several prizes and residencies since 1997, she has also taken part in various group and solo exhibitions in Switzerland, Italy and Portugal. Lucia Masu's non-linear work oscillates between video and writing, photography, drawing, objects, texts and performances. The artist is interested in notions of subjectivity and interdependence, seeking to place any individual narrative within a relational context that includes ecological, sociological and biological aspects. Like an archaeologist, she questions places of memory, beyond the visible, encouraging the public to recompose fragments, reconstitute meanings and repair loss.