SANATORIUM presents Guido Casaretto’s solo exhibition “The Sea Peoples” curated by Domenico de Chirico from November 5 to December 27, 2026. The exhibition focuses on the processes of geographical and cultural representation, investigating how traditions, objects, and craftsmanship drift from their original contexts, and undergo transformation through repetition, imitation, and relocation.
At the center of the exhibition, in A FEW CAME BACK FROM MELBOURNE, Casaretto examines the material disconnections that emerge through migration, focusing specifically on narratives surrounding Levantine emigration to Australia during the 1950s and 1960s. Over time, objects sent or brought back to families left behind begin to populate domestic spaces stripped of their original geographical, historical, or religious meanings. As these souvenirs lose their chronological context, an arbitrary mode of classification takes over: one based strictly on the raw materiality of the object rather than its conceptual roots, such as using an Indian Buddha representation as a surrogate token to remember a distant son.
The exhibition also explores the tension between authentic material strata and synthetic replication through the series MARMARO 2, following the physical formation of natural structures. Driven by his interest in the geological history mapped onto marble and the artisanal traditions developed to imitate it, Casaretto mirrors the steps of stucco decorators who historically painted marble textures onto walls and ceilings where real stone could not fit. Progressing from artificial slabs to architectural fragments, with references to the entrance floor of the historic Zografeion Lyceum, this work converts physical strata into mapped, open surfaces where natural origin and human simulation coexist.
Expanding the exhibition’s focus on global exchange or/and cultural appropriation, the series YOUR WELL TRAVELED UNCLE 2 examines how decorative styles are removed from their original cultural settings. Originally developed in domestic East Asian spaces, these visual parameters were adapted by Western artisans as production shifted toward industrial manufacturing. Driven by colonial trade networks, European markets standardized these diverse artistic traditions into an easily reproducible commodity, transforming localized craft into a mass-produced aesthetic and a status symbol of elite knowledge.
In The Sea Peoples, Casaretto takes objects and decorative techniques as markers of identity, memory and heritage to tackle how cultural knowledge is fragmented and reinterpreted over time. Casaretto positions repetition and transfer as autonomous processes, revealing the resonances and material aspects of displacement and shifting cultural meanings.
About the artist:
Guido Casaretto’s body of work concentrates on processes of geographical and cultural representation through the transfer and repetition of these methods. Often drawing parallels with localised instances and narratives, his body of work revolves around craftsmanship, experimentation on materials, and connotations with the historical, art historical and technological practices.
His solo shows include: Of Strays, Rhinos, and Misunderstandings (YUNT, Istanbul, Turkey, 2025), Looking for graviton in uneven plates (Imalathane, Bursa, Turkey, 2022), Crossing Carnevale (Zilberman Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey, 2021), The Ghosts of Matter (MOCAK, Krakow, Poland, 2019), The Pope and Galileo Had a Minor Disagreement (Zilberman, Istanbul, Turkey, 2017), Synesthesia (Zilberman, Istanbul, Turkey, 2015). His group shows include: Echoes of Earth (OMM, Eskişehir, Turkey, 2026), Creatures of Comfort (OMM, Eskişehir, Turkey, 2024), 2019 (Zilberman, Istanbul, Turkey, 2023), Under Two Suns (OMM, Eskişehir, Turkey, 2023), At the End of the Day (OMM, Eskişehir, Turkey, 2021), National Gallery of Victoria Triennial (Melbourne, Australia, 2020), Unlock (Zilberman Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey, 2020), Part Whole II, (Art On, Istanbul, Turkey, 2019), Figure and Design (curators: Monika Kozioł & Maria Anna Potocka, MOCAK, Krakow, Poland, 2018), Urban Justice (CerModern, Ankara, Turkey, 2015), Venice Biennial Italian Pavillion (Venice, Italy, 2011). His work is included in the MOCAK–Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (Krakow, Poland), the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne, Australia) and further acclaimed private collections in Europe and Middle East. He is one of the founders of Sanatorium. He lives and works in Istanbul.
