EXTINCTIONS

Until October 25, 2026, MuMa | Civico Museo Parisi Valle in Maccagno, on Lake Maggiore, presents EXTINCTIONS, the first European solo exhibition by American artist Deborah Kruger, curated by Barbara Pavan and held under the patronage of the Municipality of Maccagno con Pino e Veddasca and ProLoco Maccagno.
The exhibition finds a particularly fitting venue in the “bridge-museum” designed by Maurizio Sacripanti, an architectural structure in which built space and landscape engage in a continuous and perceptually active dialogue. Within this context, Kruger’s works enter into an ongoing relationship with the environment, the territory, and the communities that inhabit it, making visible the continuity between nature and culture that runs throughout the artist’s practice.
This relational dimension is further strengthened by the scientific support of the Fondazione Bolle di Magadino, a Swiss institution whose collaboration made possible the inclusion of a work dedicated to the Little Bittern, a threatened bird species found in the Lake Maggiore region. The partnership highlights how ecological and cultural issues transcend administrative borders, underscoring the interconnected nature of living systems and their vulnerabilities.


THE EXHIBITION
The exhibition brings together a significant body of recent work and explores the forms of irreversible loss that characterize our present time, intertwining ecological reflection, cultural memory, and individual and collective responsibility.
At the core of Kruger’s research are two phenomena that may appear distinct but are deeply interconnected: the extinction of numerous bird species and the gradual disappearance of Indigenous languages in different parts of the world. The artist interprets them as parallel manifestations of the same systemic crisis, one that simultaneously threatens both natural and cultural biodiversity.
The exhibition features textile sculptures, monumental tapestries, and wall-based works united by one of the most recognizable elements of the artist’s practice: feathers made from recycled plastic, subsequently screen-printed with images of endangered bird species and overprinted with texts in endangered languages. Through this material choice, Kruger introduces a complex semantic layering. Plastic - an emblem of globalized production and consumption and one of the principal agents of contemporary environmental degradation - is transformed into a narrative and critical device capable of revealing human responsibility in processes of ecological destruction and cultural erasure.
The artist’s background in textile design emerges in the tactile quality of the surfaces, the construction of the works, and the attention devoted to process. Materiality, accumulation, and stratification become tools through which Kruger interrogates contemporary economic and productive models, while maintaining a strong connection to craftsmanship and to the capacity of materials to preserve and transmit memory.
Underlying her artistic practice is a relational understanding of existence, according to which every organism, culture, and language participates in a complex network of interdependencies. From this perspective, the fragmentation of natural habitats and the erosion of marginalized cultures appear as different effects of common dynamics generated by economic and social systems based on intensive resource extraction and increasing homogenization. The consequences of these processes are particularly evident among the most vulnerable realities - threatened animal species and Indigenous communities - which become sensitive indicators of the fragility of the global ecosystem as a whole.
EXTINCTIONS invites viewers to reflect on the relationships linking production, consumption, language, and the protection of life, placing at its center the individual and collective responsibilities that define our time. For Deborah Kruger, art is a space of awareness and transformation, capable of making visible the often opaque structures of contemporary systems and of restoring presence and voice to what risks being permanently erased.
The exhibition is accompanied by a trilingual catalogue (Italian, English, and German) published by Al3vie Editore.

THE ARTIST
Deborah Kruger studied at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology, where her training in drawing and textile design profoundly shaped her visual language. Attention to materiality remains the foundation of her practice, which intertwines environmental concerns, cultural reflection, and formal experimentation.
Throughout her career, she has taught, lectured, and exhibited in museums, galleries, and universities across the United States, Mexico, Europe, Asia, and Australia, establishing an international presence within the field of fiber art.
Her exhibition history includes numerous participations in major international group exhibitions and biennials, including Interpretations at the Visions Museum of Textile Art (VMOTA), San Diego (2025–26); Drifts and Tremors at Aqua Art Fair during Art Basel Miami Beach and Miami Art Week (2025), and Drags and Woops: The Poetics of Rupture at MIA Curatorial Projects, Miami (2025), both curated by Milagros Bello; Our Fragile Moment at Hudson Guild Gallery, Chelsea, New York (2025), curated by Fran Beallor; the Coined in the South Biennial at the Mint Museum, Charlotte (2024); the III Bienal de Artes Plásticas y Visuales de Engativá, Bogotá (2024), as invited artist; the X International Biennial of Contemporary Textile Art, Miami (2022); the IX Rufino Tamayo Biennial at the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Internacional Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City (2021–2022); and Fiberart International at Contemporary Craft, Pittsburgh (2019).
Her works are included in major permanent collections, among them the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), New York; the Visions Museum of Textile Art, San Diego; the City of Raleigh, North Carolina; and the World Textile Association. A large-scale wall installation by the artist is currently on display at the United States Embassy in Turkmenistan as part of the Art in Embassies Program.
In 2024, her solo exhibition Turbulence: Birds, Beauty, Language & Loss was presented at the Block Gallery in Raleigh, North Carolina. During her career, she has participated in artist residencies including the Millay Colony for the Arts, La Porte Peinte Centre in Noyers-sur-Serein (France), Hypatia-in-the-Woods, and the Icelandic Textile Center.

MUMA | CIVICO MUSEO PARISI VALLE
MuMa | Civico Museo Parisi Valle, currently directed by Federico Crimi, was designed by Maurizio Sacripanti (Rome, 1916–1996) at the initiative of sculptor Giuseppe Parisi. The museum originated from the idea of a building capable of establishing an organic relationship with its natural surroundings.
The result is the celebrated “bridge-museum” of Maccagno, described by architect Paolo Portoghesi as a “museum over the waterfall”: a structure in which architecture and landscape interpenetrate, transforming natural elements into active components of the exhibition space.
Its articulated pathways suspended between environment and construction, the openings overlooking the Giona stream, and the constant dialogue with the surrounding landscape generate an experience in which art, nature, and territory merge seamlessly. Within this context, Deborah Kruger’s project resonates particularly strongly, as it explores language, ecology, and systems of interdependence while engaging directly with the museum’s conceptual and spatial framework.
Conceived in 1978 and completed through a long process of design and construction that concluded in 1998, MuMa represents one of the rare Italian examples of a museum specifically designed for modern and contemporary art. Today it houses a permanent collection of remarkable quality and significance, continuously expanded through exhibitions, acquisitions, and sustained engagement with contemporary artistic research.

FONDAZIONE BOLLE DI MAGADINO
The project benefits from the scientific support of the Fondazione Bolle di Magadino, a Swiss institution dedicated to the protection and enhancement of the nature reserve of the same name, protected since 1974.
The collaboration enabled the inclusion of a work dedicated to the Little Bittern, a threatened bird species found in the Lake Maggiore area, reinforcing the territorial and cross-border dimensions of Deborah Kruger’s research. The Foundation brings together the Swiss Confederation, the Canton of Ticino, Pro Natura, and WWF Switzerland. It works to preserve the biodiversity of the Bolle wetlands, a site of international importance designated under the Ramsar Convention since 1982.
This partnership demonstrates how ecological and cultural issues transcend administrative boundaries, becoming part of a network of relationships that connects communities, territories, and ecosystems.

Web: www.museoparisivalle.it