UNITA’ MULTIPLE
Installation, 240x240cm, Fragments sewn on canvas, 2025
Vayu Residency, Kashan, Iran
Unità Multiple is a project that continues the research journey begun at the National Museums of Berlin, which led to the creation of Paradeisos, a post-human space and meeting point. Paradeisos takes the form of a synesthetic dust garden/carpet, borrowing both the conceptual and physical structure of the Chahr-bagh carpets. These carpets organize space in a garden that follows compositional rules based on the number 4. Unità Multiple highlights the center of this structure, the water basin, which serves as a point of opening, connection, and circulation. This space, resulting from the intersection of the cardinal points, takes on the shape of a “cross” and becomes an entropic place of exchange and transformation, just like the material from which it is made: dust.
Dust is a collective material, composed of fragments, of multiple units that make up its identity and form. With this project, we continue to explore the concept of dust as a symbol of material transformation and a place where the limits of human language are revealed. In the face of matter, language cannot keep following with the development of transformations or define them with a name.
Unità Multiple presents itself as an atlas of plastic memory and its transformations, with particular reference to the plastic memory of Kashan, a layered place of great significance for the tradition of carpet weaving.
UNITA’ MULTIPLE
Solo Exhibition, Galleria dell’Artistico, Treviso, 2025
The exhibition Unità Multiple by Alice Mestriner and Ahad Moslemi revolves around the structure and concept of dust, a material often associated with the past and dissolution, which the artists reinterpret as a symbol of vitality and the layering of memory. In their work, dust becomes a dynamic element that moves through time, carrying traces of multiple stories and identities. Far from being merely a residue to be eliminated, it acts as a vehicle for new aesthetic, conceptual, and political possibilities, configuring itself as a meeting point between epochs, species, and materials. Mestriner and Moslemi’s artistic research draws from posthumanism and new materialism, offering a vision in which matter is not inert but actively participates in a continuous process of transformation. The reflection at the heart of the exhibition originates from their previous work PARADEISOS, developed during a residency at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Here, the artists explored the concept of the carpet as a nomadic and inclusive space, capable of embodying an ecological and relational philosophy. Inspired by the structure of Chahar-Bagh carpets and the tradition of Persian gardens, they created a space of convergence where hierarchies give way to a fluid and open interconnection.
The research journey further expanded with a residency in Kashan, a city historically linked to weaving and artistic production. Here, through dialogue with nomads, collectors, and scholars, the artists deepened their exploration of the connection between dust and fabric, between the material and the immaterial, between the visible and the invisible. Unità Multiple emerges as an evolution of this journey, drawing a parallel between the compositional structure of the carpet and the nature of dust—both elements formed through the layering and interweaving of multiple stories and fragments. Within the space of the Galleria dell’Artistico, the exhibited works create an immersive environment where textile installations, images, and materials gathered during the research process come together to offer a reflection on memory and transformation. This interplay reflects the idea of a hybrid world, a borderless place where the dialogue between heterogeneous elements generates new meanings and connections. Mestriner and Moslemi’s interdisciplinary approach extends beyond the artistic realm, encompassing workshops and encounters that invite the public to actively participate in the construction of new narratives and perspectives.
Through Unità Multiple, the artists invite us to rethink our relationship with matter and time, proposing a vision of the contemporary as an interweaving of influences and identities in continuous transformation. Dust, traditionally seen as a marker of time’s passage, instead becomes a witness to a living and ever-changing memory a unity composed of multiplicity, capable of embracing and constantly renewing itself.
