The Bell Jar

This group exhibition is an homage to the only novel written by the American author and poet Sylvia Plath, published in 1963 and partially inspired by her own life. The story revolves around a 19 -year-old woman named Esther who finds herself trapped under a bell jar, a metaphor for seemingly inescapable feelings of anxiety and depression caused by societal rules in  the 1950s.

But if the bell jar represents something bad in Plath's famous novel, this object also carries other meanings. Initially applied in scientific experiments, it is still used to protect precious things such as clocks and other decorative items. The object on the inside is displayed and – at the same time – private. It can be observed but never touched from the outside. In this case the bell jar can be seen as a barrier between internal and external worlds.

In this exhibition the bell jar further refers to those artists who use painting, drawing or other media to share something private or intimate. Through their artistic practice, they seem to preserve a specific moment, objects, or figures caught in domestic or private scenes that the artist wants to protect from the viewer’s gaze.

Mounir Eddib presents three thematic works in this expo:

• Insider-Outsider (2026), a house-like sculpture made of tin, lead and textile
• Unshaken (2026), oil on canvas with lead, framed in wood
• The Pit (2026), an ink drawing on unbleached cotton paper framed in lead

The Bell Jar expo is featured in Roma Diffusa, which takes place March 21-22 in San Lorenzo district. Co-curated by Massimiliano Maglione.

This is a collaboration with MONTI8 gallery.