The exhibition features twenty large scale photographs and investigates an important aspect of Per Barclay’s work, the so-called Chambres d’huile: a series of photographs of the artist’s installations created in specific settings and flooded with liquids such as oil, water, blood and wine.

The selections ranges from the first Chambre d’huile, dated 1989, to the most recent ones, depicting various spaces of different architectural style and functions that Per Barclay chose for their fascinating and suggestive location. By flooding this spaces with liquids, and with motor oil in particular, the artist creates a reflecting surface which modifies and alters the installations, making them inaccessible and unreachable. They become spaces that induce a sense of anxiety as well as of desire, as the viewer feels the need to discover the depths of “another” place.

The exhibited works include three images of the Fondazione Merz that were shot during the building restoration works. One of them is presented here for the first time: a large format photograph displayed in the outside tanks and inundated with a new material.