TASSONOMIE (TAXONOMIES): MANUELA BIERI AT THE VILLA PIA MUSEUM, PORZA

The Erich Lindenberg Art Foundation will inaugurate TASSONOMIE (TAXONOMIES) on November 9, 2025, an exhibition dedicated to the artist Manuela Bieri, whose practice is deeply rooted in visual communication. Beginning her career in graphic design, Bieri gradually gravitated toward the language of textiles — a medium that, in her hands, becomes a vessel for connection and memory, inquiry and meaning. Her work unfolds in dialogue between nature and human experience, and through ongoing reflections on space and time.

It is within this terrain that Bieri’s distinctive expressive freedom emerges. Her technique stems from a process of exploration refined over time — continuously nourished by study and direct engagement with material. She translates her fascination with matter into a mature, self-aware artistic language in which the act of making becomes an ongoing investigation of techniques and traditions — the true core of her work.

Through patient gestures, materials reveal their aesthetic essence, elevated from raw substance to works of art that blur the boundary between nature and creation. Her installations — often composed of fabrics, beads, gems, and wools gathered over years of travel, as seen in her Talismans, as well as vegetal and ephemeral elements such as leaves transformed into hanging cocoons or dried flowers reimagined as a Herbarium — establish a subtle dialogue with the surrounding space.

The exhibition stands not only as a testament to Manuela Bieri’s artistic journey but also as a synthesis of the shared values between the artist and the Foundation: a meeting ground between art and applied arts, where the creative process becomes a space of exchange and reflection. From this curatorial approach emerges the Foundation’s new editorial series, Sguardi (Perspectives), which complements the long-established Approfondimenti (Insights) series dedicated to previously featured artists. Conceived as a platform for critical engagement, Sguardi reaffirms the Foundation’s spirit of openness and exploration, expanding its commitment to the documentation and discourse of contemporary art.

Through a continuous dialogue between artistic practice, exhibition space, and critical thought, the Foundation reasserts its mission: to promote new interpretations of the present, to accompany artists in their development, and to provide tools that illuminate the richness, complexity, and uniqueness of every creative experience.

Born in Lugano in 1977, Manuela Bieri earned her degree in Visual Communication from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) in 2003. Alongside her academic formation, she developed an artistic path that interweaves diverse passions, skills, and interests. For nearly two decades, she has traveled regularly to distant regions—including Indonesia, Timor, and Georgia—to explore cultures, textile traditions, and diverse ways of inhabiting the world.

Her practice arises from the encounter between nature, human experience, and a deep meditation on space and time. The result is a multifaceted language where textile techniques, object interventions, graphic elaboration, and handcrafted creations coexist in a delicate balance between tradition and experimentation.

Among the milestones of her career are a site-specific solo exhibition at the Ethnographic Museum of the Verzasca Valley in Sonogno — where she fostered a dialogue between contemporary artistic languages and traditional objects — and her participation in Cleaning the House, a workshop with the Marina AbramovićInstitute, an immersive and transformative experience that left a lasting mark on her practice.

Today, nature remains her primary source of inspiration—observed, deconstructed, and reassembled with both delicacy and irony. It becomes the substance of an art that is at once poetic and political, calling attention to the urgent issues of our time.

Alongside her artistic work, Manuela Bieri is also a radio journalist with the Swiss Italian-language Broadcasting Corporation (RSI).

Taxonomies will be on view from November 9, 2025, through February 22, 2026, at the Museo Villa Pia, Via Cantonale 24, Porza (Lugano), curated by Tiziana Lotti.

A companion publication, “Manuela Bieri. Tassonomie” (Erich Lindenberg Art Foundation / Casagrande, 2025), features critical essays by Barbara Pavan and Tiziana Lotti.

Opening reception: Sunday, November 9, from 1:00 p.m.
Public hours: Friday–Sunday, 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Admission: Free
Holiday closure: December 26, 2025 – January 8, 2026

During the exhibition period, including the holiday closure, special visits may be arranged by writing to info@fondazionelindenberg.org.
Information and reservations: +41 (0)91 940 18 64