IN NEGOTIATION
jocjonjosch
Musei Civici di Spoleto, Casa Romana
Opening: 27 June 2026 (runs until 11 October)
A Mahler & LeWitt Studios project in partnership with the Musei Civci di Spoleto, supported by Nicole Beutler Projects and Horizon Foundation
‘In Negotiation’ presents a new series of large-scale ceramic sculptures by the English-Swiss collective jocjonjosch in the Casa Romana di Spoleto, one of the best preserved Roman houses in Italy.
The sculptures resemble massive stacked heads and are formed by abstract motifs referencing body parts. Uniquely, the heads are sculpted simultaneously by the three members of the collective. Their forms emerge through a series of fraught exchanges in which the artists pinch, press and knead the clay structures, testing their own intentions against those of the group.
Understanding the dynamics of group action is central to jocjonjosch’s work: “Our practice focuses on the individual’s experiences of connection and disconnection within the group. In this context and throughout our work, the human body serves as a motif – reminding us of our humanness, not as an abstract concept but as real, physical, emotional beings in relationship with each other and the world around us.” In our climate of environmental and social crisis, the ‘In Negotiation’ sculptures urgently visualise the dynamics of collective living while asking pressing questions – Why we are prone to conflict? Where might we find empathy?
‘In Negotiation’ challenges audiences to think about sculpture in new terms – as the product of a negotiation between individuals, and an illustration of the conflicts and concordances that arise in the process.
The project has been developed through the Mahler & LeWitt Studios residency program in Spoleto. The scale of the sculptures and the unique collaborative processes have required the collaboration of engineers and ceramicists in London and Umbria.
A schools program led by arts educator Giulia Filippi in partnership with the Liceo Artistico di Spoleto and ABA Perugia will run concurrently with the exhibition.
jocjonjosch is the English-Swiss collective of Jocelyn Marchington, Jonathan Brantschen and Joschi Herczeg. They have been collaborating since 2009. Working across performance, video, sculpture, photography, and painting they address the fraught relation between the individual and the group. Their work explores the ways in which oppositions such as success and failure, efficiency and waste, purposiveness and pointlessness, have a tendency to slide into one another when pushed to their logical extremes. Their work is held in prominent collections including Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Tate (UK); Caldic Collection (Netherlands); Musée d’art du Valais and Förderpreis des Kantons Wallis (Switzerland). Recent exhibitions include Studio Smithfield, London, UK, 2024; Galerie Zur Matze, Brig, CH, 2023; Bex & Arts Triennial, Bex, CH, 2023; Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, CN, 2020.