Magazzino Italian Art is proud to announce that it will present the first installation in the United States of Llèncols de Aigua, a gallery-size collaborative artwork by the internationally renowned designer Antonio Marras and the artist Maria Lai (1919–2013), opening to the public on May 17, 2025, and continuing through July 28.
Marras and Lai, both Sardinian artists deeply connected to the poetics of fabric and memory, developed a shared language made of gestures and cloth. As part of this intense collaboration, in 2003 in Alghero, Sardinia, they created Llèncols de Aigua, a Catalan title that translates into “Sheets of Water.”
The installation consists of long white sheets hand-stitched and adorned with antique nightgowns embroidered with phrases collected by Lai during an educational project with children.
The work, which belongs to Marras’s private collection, will be installed in the isotropic room of the Museum’s Robert Olnick Pavilion (designed by architect Alberto Campo Baeza), the symbolic heart of the building: a cube, pierced at each corner by square windows that create a continuously evolving play of light and shadow.
The presentation of Llèncols de Aigua accompanies Magazzino’s exhibition Maria Lai. A Journey to America (through July 28), the first retrospective in the United States dedicated to the artist. Both the retrospective and Llèncols de Aigua are curated by Paola Mura, Artistic Director of Magazzino.
