Gianni Caravaggio & Johannes Wald, “unforeseen” at Galerie Stadt, Sindelfingen

The first thing we noticed upon entering was a hand. Or rather: a metal outline of its profile, suspended in the corner of the main room. Not an evocative shape, but a precise sign. It’s an appropriate starting point for reading unforeseen, the exhibition that brings together Gianni Caravaggio and Johannes Wald in a deliberately partial dialogue. Curated by Hannah Eckstein, the show doesn’t attempt a direct confrontation between the two sculptors’ respective approaches, nor does it search for synthesis. Instead, it builds a space of coexistence. Two distinct approaches to sculpture, one cosmological, the other self-reflective—are placed side by side without forced convergence. The distance between them becomes the real content of the exhibition.

The exhibition layout at Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen reflects this premise. The rooms are calibrated, sober, almost functional. Caravaggio’s works occupy the main spaces in a radial arrangement that emphasizes the idea of a constellation: works that reference each other without sacrificing autonomy. Wald, in contrast, fragments his presence across isolated episodes—niches, passages, interstitial spaces. Visitors are compelled to constantly shift perspective: from Caravaggio’s dense, formalized works to Wald’s traces of process. There’s no narrative flow, only a sequence of presences.

Materially, their divergence is stark. Johannes Wald systematically questions the very notion of sculpture: raw plaster, articulated bronze limbs, oxidized mirrors, shredded notebooks reconstituted into sheets or copper surfaces. The work ceases to be a finished product and becomes documentation of a process. This is evident in pieces like the subconscious (2025), a plaster slab marked by handprints, and in the notebooks transformed into copper plates or paper pulp. Wald’s gestures become analytical: the studio is not a site of creation, but a subject of inquiry. His sculptures are not objects but records of failed or suspended attempts, reflecting on the distance between thought and materialization.

Gianni Caravaggio, on the other hand, takes the opposite path. His works are formally resolved yet conceptually open-ended. Materials, glass, bronze, stone, fine wires, are handled with precision to construct universal metaphors: models of a forming cosmos (Young Universe), allegories of time and transformation (Time runs through my fingers, Lonely journey through space and time). Material becomes the structure of an abstract discourse, where references to the human body, hands, serpentine forms, serve not a narrative but a scaling function: a minimal point of reference within a broader order.

The entire exhibition revolves around this methodical opposition. Wald focuses on process and the failure of the artistic gesture; Caravaggio on the abstraction of natural phenomena rendered visible. They don’t directly engage, nor do they negate each other. This gap, underscored by the curatorial approach, does not create dramatic tension: rather, it serves as a factual observation. Two conceptions of contemporary sculpture, each coherent and self-aware. They do not seek each other out, nor do they collide.

Leaving the gallery, the exhibition leaves an impression of an unresolved assessment. No synthesis, no resolution. Only the clear yet non-definitive presence of two separate research paths. In a time of communicative excess, unforeseen opts for the silent coexistence of differences. Perhaps that, more than dialogue itself, is the true subject of this exhibition.

“unforeseen” by Gianni Caravaggio & Johannes Wald, curated by Hannah Eckstein, at Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen, 11.05.25–14.09.25.