SEOUL.- Mazzoleni returns to Frieze Seoul this year with a presentation that reflects the gallery’s dynamic programme, ahead of the opening of the gallery’s third space in Milan. The presentation unites distinct voices that have reshaped the boundaries of art from the post-war period to today and will include works by Agostino Bonalumi (1935– 2013), Enrico Castellani (1930–2017), Michelangelo Pistoletto (born 1933), and Salvo (1947–2015), among others.

A highlight of the booth is Agostino Bonalumi’s Rosso, a large-scale estroflessione (extroflexed canvas) that exemplifies the artist’s innovative approach to pittura-oggetto, a fusion of painting and sculpture. Bonalumi’s use of monochromatic surfaces stretched over hidden structural elements transforms the canvas into a sculptural relief, disrupting the traditional pictorial plane and activating the surrounding space. His practice aligns with contemporaneous global movements such as Korea’s Dansaekhwa, which similarly employed monochrome and tactile surfaces to question perception, materiality, and the spatial role of the artwork.

Bonalumi’s estroflessioni transcend the passive act of viewing; by physically projecting into the viewer’s space, they demand interaction. This spatial activation finds a parallel in the work of Enrico Castellani, who similarly extended the canvas into the third dimension.

Castellani focused his career on creating dynamic surfaces through innovative manipulations of the canvas. His minimalist approach emphasised light, shadow, rhythmic patterns, and geometric precision, exploring the interplay between space, structure, and perception. From 2006 to 2013, Castellani focused on the production of his aluminium sculptures, of which Superficie bifronte in alluminio (Superficie argento) (2008) is a striking example, pushing the boundaries of materiality and space.

Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Mirror Paintings also invite the viewer to engage beyond the traditional act of viewing. In Smartphone - donna in piedi e donna seduta (2018), two women gaze down at their phones, their figures printed on a mirrored surface. Viewers are drawn to the work as their reflections become part of the scene, turning the static image into a living, shifting tableau. As Pistoletto said, “The mirror exists only in the gaze and in the thought of the observer.” His Mirror Paintings come to life through this participatory gaze and are incomplete without the viewer’s presence.

The same boundaries between art and life are questioned in the work of Salvo, who’s luminous depictions of architecture and landscape evoke memory, travel, and timeless observation. His fascination with light, particularly sunsets, stems in part from his extensive travels across Afghanistan, the Middle East, North Africa and China. Reflecting on these journeys, Salvo observed: “each journey has three stages. Your imagination, before you leave, your actual experience and, finally, your memories. Your memory can never be precise and it inevitably ends up mixing with others.” In Untitled (1989), memory and imagination converge, transforming fleeting experiences into a vivid, timeless landscape.