Passato e Presente, 2016
In the exhibition "Passato e presente", the concept was to create a dialogue between contemporary art and the museum's large collection of ancient Roman objects, the distinctiveness of the historical palace and the Roman forum in the Centro Storico Terracina. The exhibition was initiated by Director and Archeology Professor Pietro Longo and curated by art historian and critic Lorella Sacco.
Introduksjon til utstillingen, av Dir. Pietro Longo
“The context of the exhibition in the Palazzo is based on the in- terpretation of the term – “past and present” - and how you can create a dialogue and a new understanding. Looking at history with the benefit of hindsight we can see how life and the events are repeated. Religion, war and death, are no longer marginal factors, but at the center of life itself. In the global world today we face religious wars, shelters and death on a daily basis through the media, but at the same time we want to distance themselves from this disaster in search of - the good life - a life of meaning and fulfillment.”
Art Critic Lorella Sacco
“The paintings of Mona K. Lalim portray reality as a multi-layered space in her attempt to convey its complexity. Since 2006, she has been painting architectural spaces with which she is intimately familiar. Her works are not merely reproductions, but instead very personal representations of these spaces. Her abstract compositions reveal her mastery of the medium of oil and the use of colour combinations.
Monas curious technique of painting with multiple layers of paint, leaves of gold, silver and aluminum gives her art an air of archeological stratigraphy. Traces of antique frescoes intermingled with imaginary visions emerge from her paintings in a mental voyage from the ruins of Pompeii to the abstract works of Josef Albers.
Lalim’s passion for antiquity brought her from Norway to Italy so many times she decided to make Terracina her second home. Here she could experience daily and simultaneously monuments and sites that span from the Roman Empire, to the Middle Ages and beyond.
Lalim’s decision to converse her paintings in a Plexiglas parallelepiped clearly conveys a personal desire to preserve her art over time, much as would a restorer. Her artistic process, in which past memories and present day experience coexists, is inextricably linked to the practice of meditation and attainment of a greater awareness of existence through it.”