Many of us now know the feeling of unsettlement, of having our home somewhere, but having come from a different place. It is unclear where you belong, if you belong anywhere, and under what circumstances you can claim the same feeling of home as others do in the place you currently occupy.

But what if that unsettlement itself were at the base of our attachment to the place where we live and to the places that we left? These places – their spatial qualities – pile up and grow together in our experience. Our imagination of the future and our memories are made possible by this collection of spaces that we are ‘leaving behind’, ‘becoming part of’, ‘coming back to’, or ‘conquering’.

Marta Colpani is an Italian artist based in the Netherlands. She uses her position of immigrant in a foreign country as a starting point: her relation with the physical surroundings is often marked by a separation, and by the desire to find familiar elements in a foreign place. Colpani’s works connect different landscapes from different places, using their similarities and common features. Tangible elements that she isolates from the physical surroundings, like architectural forms or meteorological phenomena, are often multiplied or blown up until they are outdone by their own bareness or remoteness.