The Fondazione Ghisla Art Collection is pleased to present “La Tana del Matto”, the new solo exhibition by Joris Van de Moortel.
Among the most radical and distinctive voices on the international contemporary art scene, Joris Van de Moortel develops a multidisciplinary practice that interweaves painting, sculpture, installation, sound, performance, and writing. His work draws on Northern European art history, mysticism, music, madness as a form of knowledge, and the ritual dimension of the creative act.
With La Tana del Matto, the first two floors of the museum are transformed into a total, immersive installation conceived as a mental and symbolic universe: a “den” understood as a refuge, a cave, an intimate space and, at the same time, a place of exploration. Visitors are invited to lose themselves among visionary images, sounds, mythological references, and historical stratifications, in a continuous dialogue between the sacred and the profane, order and chaos, past and present. At the heart of the project emerges the figure of the Fool—an ancient and ambiguous archetype—not as a mere emblem of madness, but as a possibility of freedom, reversal, and transformation.
The exhibition features new works created specifically for Locarno, alongside paintings, sculptures, light elements, videos, and sound interventions, forming an intense and unsettling journey that raises questions about the human condition, time, spirituality, and the role of art today.
On the occasion of the opening, the official exhibition catalogue will be published, featuring reproductions of the works on display and critical texts in Italian and English by Pieter Vermeulen, Annelies Vanwalleghem, and Louma Salamé, offering in-depth perspectives on Van de Moortel’s practice from historical, philosophical, and iconographic viewpoints.
Alongside the temporary exhibition, the 2026 Selection from the Ghisla Collection will also be presented on the museum’s top floor. This exhibition draws from the historical core of the permanent collection and offers a journey through the great masters of contemporary art, spanning some of the most significant movements of recent decades—from Pop Art to Informal Art, from Spatialism to Surrealism, from Graffiti Art to the major experiments of the late twentieth century.
On display are 34 works by artists who have decisively shaped the last 80 years of art history, offering visitors a broad and transversal overview of the main international artistic currents. Among the most emblematic names featured are Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Cy Twombly, Roy Lichtenstein, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Fernando Botero, Pablo Picasso, Piero Manzoni, Lucio Fontana, Enrico Castellani, Alighiero Boetti, alongside many other protagonists of the international art scene.
The 2026 Selection from the Ghisla Collection enters into an ideal dialogue with La Tana del Matto, reinforcing the role of the Fondazione Ghisla Art Collection as a place of encounter between contemporary artistic research and the major chapters of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art history.
