Cassina Projects is pleased to present “Relaxing Box”, debut solo show by Zsófia Keresztes (*1985) with the gallery and in Italy.
The exhibition takes its title from the relaxing box, a device used in entomological preparation. It is a humidified container in which dried insect specimens are made flexible again, allowing their wings and limbs to be arranged into the desired positions. The term carries a peculiar contradiction: while it evokes relaxation and calm, it actually refers to a process in which a lifeless body is made malleable once more.
The contradiction embedded in the title Relaxing Box runs through the works themselves. Rigid structures take on soft, organic forms, while pliable textiles become regular, almost architectural systems. Care, attachment, and vulnerability appear not as separate concepts but as intertwined experiences. The exhibition explores how bodies and objects are transformed through the relationships they enter into, and where the boundary lies between holding on to something and possessing it.