Join Ludovica Carbotta as she introduces her work in Material Shifts, followed by a hands-on workshop exploring the nearby urban environment as a site for learning and discovery. 

For Material Shifts, Carbotta is producing a new work comprising a series of casts of Jersey barriers made from pigmented acrylic resin. Originally designed to improve road safety, Jersey barriers are modular concrete structures commonly used to direct traffic. Yet they have also been used to block access to public spaces following forced evictions and demolitions, becoming symbols of exclusion and social displacement. This dual function places them at the intersection of protection and exclusion. 

In Carbotta’s sculptures, smaller casts of urban detritus such as discarded plastic bottles are embedded in the resin, while the surfaces are adorned with the artist’s drawings. The lightweight material lends the works a playful quality reminiscent of building blocks. 

During the workshop, Carbotta will introduce her installation within Material Shifts before inviting participants to continue exploring outdoors. Together, they will take one of the sculptures into the surrounding urban environment and investigate the space through a series of activities and interventions. 

This workshop will be held in English.

Would you like to take part? Become a member! Members enjoy free admission to all exhibitions, workshops, events and guided tours, invitations to exhibition openings, discounts in the museum shop, and much more. 

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Ludovica Carbotta (Torino, 1982) lives and works in Barcelona (ES). Her practice focuses on the physical exploration of the urban space and how individuals establish connections with the environment they inhabit. In recent works, by combining installations, texts and performances, she is researching on fictional site specificity, a form of site-oriented practice that considers imaginary places or embodies real places with fictional contexts, recovering the role of imagination as a value to construct our knowledge.