Bracha L. Ettinger: Bracha’s Notebooks

Braverman Gallery is glad to announce the opening of the solo exhibition “Bracha L. Ettinger. Bracha’s Notebooks”, by artist Bracha L. Ettinger at Castello di Rivoli, Turin on November 4th, 2021.

Within the overall Museum program of Espressioni in 2021 – 2022, Castello di Rivoli Research Institute (CRRI), in collaboration with the curatorial department of the Museum, organizes the first solo exhibition in an Italian institution dedicated to Bracha L. Ettinger (Tel Aviv, 1948) whose artistic practice intertwines with her work and research as a philosopher and psychoanalyst.

Bracha L. Ettinger’s practice has its roots in her autobiographical past, in the history of her parents who survived the Holocaust; it explores the concepts of trauma, oblivion, the feminine and matrixial gaze, of the space of the unconscious and of the transition from invisible to visible enlightening art’s capacity of “healing”. Her notebooks, as her paintings, are characterized by a dimension between the abstract and the figurative, obtained through fine brushmarks and layers of color and shapes that create an atmosphere oscillating between darkness and light, and invite viewers to immerse themselves in an intimate and spiritual dimension.

The exhibition presents a selection of 5 paintings and approximately 50 notebooks and used by the artist to annotate and trace her associations, reflections, and working notes, joining together words and drawings. These notebooks are written in three languages (French, English and Hebrew) and divided between listening notebooks and artist’s notebooks; they testify Bracha L. Ettinger’s dual activity and constitute a privileged point of view for understanding her practice and her thinking. Bracha L. Ettinger’s notebooks are displayed in a site-specific and unitary installation in the historical gallery of Castello di Rivoli called “Room of the Sleeping Putti” that used to be the King’s room and that was decorated in 1720. The vitrines, where the notebooks are presented are in dialog with the frescoes of the ceiling, creating an organic experience for the visitors who can move freely to see closely each notebook in a meditative atmosphere.

On the occasion of Bracha L. Ettinger’ solo exhibition, Castello di Rivoli Research Institute (CRRI) will receive the exhibited notebooks from the artist, and will start organizing their digitalization, transcription and translation. At the end of the exhibition this material will remain available to worldwide scholars and researchers for consultation in the CRRI premises, located within the Museum Library.

The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual (English/Italian) publication with new essays by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Marcella Beccaria and Andrea Viliani including a selection of images from the artist’s notebooks.