These questions inspire Gift to Entropy, an installation art exhibition by Italian artist Renato Leotta, on view at Bangkok Kunsthalle from 30 October to 30 December 2026. Curated by Stefano Rabolli Pansera, the exhibition is a part of the artist-in-residence program and serves as a prefiguration of the upcoming work at Khao Yai Art Forest.
Potentiality and Entropy
In Gift to Entropy, Leotta investigates the relationship between potentiality and entropy as two fundamental forces through which form emerges and transforms. Rather than understanding form as a fixed configuration, the artist approaches it as a temporary condition produced by the interaction of matter and energy. His artworks are diagrams of forces: they reveal processes that are otherwise imperceptible.
Leotta has developed a particular sensitivity to the relationship between natural phenomena and their representation. Light, gravity, water and vegetation become both the subjects and the agents of his work. Photography, film, sculpture and installation operate as instruments through which these phenomena are registered, preserved or allowed to unfold. His artistic gestures are remarkably restrained: rather than imposing a configuration upon matter, he establishes the conditions through which matter might reveal its own possibilities.
At this exhibition, the artist showcases two bodies of work that explore the relationship between preservation and transformation
Flowers, Films, Aluminum Cases, and Fragrance
The first installation consists of a pile of old aluminum cases containing 16 mm films shot by the artist, recording extreme close-ups of flowers. The camera approaches the flowers so closely that the act of filming seems to exceed the possibilities of vision. It is as though Leotta were attempting to capture not their appearance, but their fragrance. The image approaches the threshold of another sensory experience, suggesting the possibility of perceiving through sight what can only be experienced through smell. Yet the films remain enclosed within the aluminum cases. The images
are withdrawn from visibility, preserved as something precious, almost as though the fragrance of the flowers itself could be collected, stored and protected from disappearance. The containers become repositories of a sensory experience that cannot actually be contained. What is exhibited is the promise of their appearance and the impossible evocation of their fragrance.
Red Paper, Folds, Plexiglass Case and Gravity
The second installation consists of folded sheets of red paper. Collected by the artist from a Chinese paper shop, the sheets had traditionally been used for writing chunlian or traditional Chinese New Year couplets. Written in gold or black ink on red paper, these lines are expressions of blessing and good fortune.
Removed from their original ritual context, the sheets retain their folds and physical traces accumulated over time. Leotta pins them within a transparent plexiglass case whose height corresponds to the full length of the paper when completely unfolded. Suspended in this condition, the paper is subjected to the continuous force of gravity. Its folds may gradually relax, allowing the sheets to extend further towards the bottom of the case.
Yet, the folds will never disappear entirely, and the paper will never achieve absolute flatness. The dimensions of the case therefore establish a limit that exists conceptually but remains unattainable in reality. The work is defined not by the achievement of a final form, but by the perpetual movement towards it.
Between the Presence and the Unattainable
Both installations at 'Gift to Entropy' exist in a state of suspension between what is present and what remains unattainable: each artwork reveals its own potentiality. The fragrance is suggested but cannot be experienced; the paper slowly unfolds without ever reaching its final configuration.
At Bangkok Kunsthalle, floral images remain concealed and paper unfolds towards an unattainable limit. At Khao Yai Art Forest, an architectural enclosure protects the growth of vegetation while gradually surrendering its own boundaries.
Between a fragrance beyond our reach, a form that can never be fully realized, and an architecture that cannot be inhabited, 'Gift to Entropy' reveals the infinite potential of every object to transform itself.
Exhibition Information
Exhibition: Gift to Entropy
Artist: Renato Leotta
Curator: Stefano Rabolli Pansera
Venue: Bangkok Kunsthalle
Dates: 30 October - 30 December 2026
Opening Hours: Wednesday - Sunday, 2:00 PM - 8:00 PM (Closed Mondays and Tuesdays)
Opening Reception: 30 October 2026, from 7:00 PM onwards
The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura Bangkok, Khao Yai Art Forest, and Bangkok Kunsthalle.
