Via San Gennaro

“Leimer's experience of being an outsider-insider in Little Italy—as a foreigner looking at familiar yet still puzzling cultural references—allowed her to undertake tactful fieldwork for nearly a year that unraveled the layers and complexities of the area in times of late capitalism... Via San Gennaro creates an affecting portrait not only of the signs and people that make up the neighborhood, but also of the forces that reshaped it from a working-class Italian-American community to the third-most expensive zip code in the United States.”— Kari Conte

Published on the occasion of Leimer's 2019 solo exhibition at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) and designed by Other Means, Via San Gennaro features documentation of Leimer's newly-commissioned large-scale sculptures and a video installation, continuing her long-standing interest in urban space, architecture, labor and globalization. The video component is a collaboration with filmmaker and puppeteer Tony de Nonno, who keeps the fading Sicilian Opera dei Pupi (Opera of the Puppets) tradition alive.