A Mahler & LeWitt Studios project in partnership with Musei Civci di Spoleto opening with the Spoleto Festival dei Due Mondi, supported by Horizon Foundation and Nicole Beutler Projects

Opening: Saturday 27 June, 2026, Musei Civici di Spoleto

‘In Negotiation’ commissions a large-scale ceramic sculpture by the English-Swiss collective jocjonjosch, developing their experimental thinking around collaborative making practices. The collective began developing the sculpture on a research residency at the Mahler & LeWitt Studios in 2024.

jocjonjosch’s collaborative practice includes sculpture, performance, painting, photography and video. Their work addresses the fraught relation between the individual and the group. In our current climate of environmental and social crisis, they urgently visualise the dynamics of collective living while asking pressing questions – Why we are prone to conflict? Where might we find empathy? Their sculpture practice is unique because they develop the work through democratic and collaborative processes.

The new sculpture resembles three massive stacked ‘heads’: the three elements are balanced on top of each other and each is sculpted with figurative and abstract motifs, referencing body parts. Uniquely, the ‘heads’ are sculpted simultaneously by the three artists. Produced by jocjonjosch Studio and the Mahler & LeWitt Studios, in collaboration with engineers and ceramicists, the sculpture will be presented in an exhibition at the Musei Civici in Spoleto.

Thematically, the work explores the dynamics of empathy, conflict, and coexistence, offering a resonant sculptural response to today’s social and environmental challenges. It contributes to ongoing debates around collective authorship in art, testing new ways of balancing autonomy and collaboration within sculptural practice.