Sonia Leimer
Via San Gennaro

“Leimer’s experience of being an outsider-insider in Little Italy—as a foreigner looking at familiar yet still puzzling cultural references—allowed her to undertake tactful fieldwork for nearly a year that unraveled the layers and complexities of the area in times of late capitalism. . . . Via San Gennaro creates an affecting portrait not only of the signs and people that make up the neighborhood, but also of the forces that reshaped it from a working-class Italian-American community to the third-most expensive zip code in the United States.”— Kari Conte Published on the occasion of Leimer’s 2019 solo exhibition at the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) and designed by Other Means, Via San Gennaro features documentation of Leimer’s newly-commissioned large-scale sculptures and a video installation, continuing her long-standing interest in urban space, architecture, labor and globalization. The video component is a collaboration with filmmaker and puppeteer Tony de Nonno, who keeps the fading Sicilian Opera dei Pupi (Opera of the Puppets) tradition alive.