An original project by the Italian artist that brings art and science into dialogue by exploring "non-optical images" (the visual processes through which the human brain forms mental images using all the senses except direct sight).
The Shape of the Air originates from the eponymous exhibition by Luca Spano presented in the spaces of the Italian Cultural Institute of Montreal. The book conveys the complexity of Spano's artistic research and the results of his residency at the Brain Repair and Integrative Neuroscience Program (BRaIN) at the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal. Spano, who has always been interested in the links between art and science, explores in this work the ways in which we perceive, process and remember images. He considers images not only as what we acquire through sight, but also as mental images generated through non-optical processes. Critical contributions by neuroscientists, historians and art curators explore some of the central questions of Spano's work, investigating topics such as the relationship between images and consciousness, and the definition of an image itself.
Luca Spano (born 1982) is an Italian artist. His research engages with the representational frameworks through which realities are generated and perceived. Spano explores the threshold between the visible and the invisible as a site where new worlds can emerge. His methodology draws from socio-anthropological premises, connecting speculative practices, sensory experiences, data, beliefs, and the aesthetics of language. Within this frame, he has developed ongoing dialogues with scientific disciplines, exploring the uncertainty of human and non-human processes of knowledge construction. this often leads him to collaborate with institutions across diverse fields, cultivating open exchanges at the intersection of art and science with scholars, researchers, and members of specific communities. Spano's practice unfolds through media such as text, image, installation, and sculpture. These elements are assembled to form ecologies of interconnected references—spaces for contemporary poetics of the unknown. Alongside his artistic practice, Luca Spano is also an educator committed to experimental collaborative practices centered on knowledge sharing and community-building.
