On view November 7, 2026–January 16, 2028
Building 5
Opening Celebration: November 7, 5:30pm
In Conversation: Laurent Grasso and Curator Denise Markonish, November 7, 2026, 4pm
North Adams, MA, September 23, 2026 — MASS MoCA presents Metaphysical Maze, the largest exhibition to date in the United States devoted to French conceptual artist Laurent Grasso. Installed in the museum’s iconic Building 5, Metaphysical Maze takes the form of an immersive installation bringing together, for the first time, the artist’s most emblematic films, along with the new film Cosmic Drive, produced during his two-year research residency at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California.
Conceived as a journey, the exhibition immerses visitors in a contemplative state that expands their perception of time. Paintings, sculptures, neons and architectural interventions will be presented alongside the films, forming an environment in which the different elements function as a whole. In Grasso’s universe, lines are blurred and time appears suspended within a carefully orchestrated installation. “Entering my exhibition,” says the artist, “is like walking into a forest — an imaginary landscape where you wander without trying to identify every species of tree.”
“Grasso’s exhibition is the culmination of ten years of conversation,” notes curator Denise Markonish. “Grasso’s work was first presented at MASS MoCA in Explode Every Day: An Inquiry into the Phenomena of Wonder (2016-2017), and since then we’ve been in dialogue about how to bring his expansive vision to Building 5. The merging of his films and related artworks will deeply immerse visitors in a new world, which will also extend to satellite projects throughout the region.”
Using three X-shaped structures specially designed to span the length of the former industrial space, Grasso turns the gallery into an immersive machine of vision. Each section holds videos and artworks all of which upend traditional depictions of time. These structures also draw inspiration from Sol LeWitt’s geometric works which are on view in his A Wall Drawing Retrospective installed in MASS MoCA’s adjacent gallery and establish a dialogue between the two exhibitions. Each architectural element is positioned at a 45-degree angle to the next, creating shifting sightlines that encourage visitors to move around and between the structures. As visitors navigate the space, their changing perspectives create a sense of continuous movement, reinforcing the impression of being inside a living mechanism, evoking time travel, a theme Grasso has explored throughout his career.
The focal point of Grasso’s practice are his films. Metaphysical Maze unites five works which look at shifting perceptions, invisible forces, and the resonance of landscape: OttO (2018), Anima (2022), Orchid Island (2023), Geophonia (2024), and Cosmic Drive (2026).
The most recent of these, Cosmic Drive, was shot on location at and around the SETI Institute, a non-profit research organization that studies the emergence of life in extreme environments and beyond Earth. It was inspired by the result of Grasso’s residency at SETI and his conversations with astrobiologist and Director of the Carl Sagan Center for Research Nathalie Cabrol’s quest to understand the origins of life in the universe. The film follows a character, played by the French actor Megan Northam, as she drives across an immense desert in a vintage car that transforms into an experimental receiver. As the journey unfolds, the car’s bodywork, windows, and dashboard begin to shimmer with light waves, pulsating tones, and electromagnetic patterns evoking fleeting traces of possible extraterrestrial emissions.
Cosmic Drive brings together mythologies and projections of life beyond Earth with contemporary research, from technosignatures that could indicate other forms of intelligence to the possibility that neutrinos could carry information across the universe. The film probes the limits of our instruments and perceptions, as well as the possibility that certain forms of life or communication may elude the categories and means of observation available to us. Space is therefore not conceived as a territory to be conquered, but rather as a field for metaphysical inquiry.
Grasso punctuates the exhibition with works across various media that evoke strange phenomena, many of which appear in his films. These include his ongoing series Studies into the Past, a deliberately undated series that references historical painting, while introducing singularities that immediately unsettle their interpretation. This merger of past, present, and future is intended to produce a sense of confusion in the viewer when it comes to time, as well as a false historical memory. New works related to Cosmic Drive include Cosmic Mirrors (2026), a series of hammered stainless-steel panels installed in the gallery windows with subtle painted interventions that evoke the optical phenomena produced by gravitational lenses. Other works include Future Herbarium (2026), a large white-bronze sculpture related to the film Orchid Island, which imagines the possible mutations of a post-disaster herbarium and Solar Wind (2026), an LED screen version of Grasso’s 2016 permanent light installation in Paris. Throughout MASS MoCA, Grasso has placed a series of neon signs (2024-6) which reference flame and cloud motifs seen in the film Anima. The neons move from the exterior facade of the museum through the galleries leading the way to Metaphysical Maze.
As these objects and films merge, viewers are drawn into a hypnotic environment in which time is suspended, an impression heightened by sound from the film’s soundtracks by notable composers such as Warren Ellis (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) and Nicolas Godin (Air). Together, these works create a seductive yet increasingly unsettling experience, continually shifting the boundaries between what can be observed, measured, imagined, or believed.
“Beyond Grasso’s technically rich and structural forms lies his interest in how life intersects with science, the natural world, poetics, and time,” adds Kristy Edmunds, Director of MASS MoCA. “Metaphysical Maze provokes in us a multitude of invisible forces that are at continuous play around us, both real and imagined. Grasso’s exhibition is like a call and response between forms and symbols, which are seamlessly threaded together, drawing visitors into an exploration of metaphysical time from prehistory to imagined futures.”
“We are exposed to invisible forces that are often difficult to grasp. Through my installations, I try to bring viewers into contact with these forces and to create the conditions in which they can be sensed,” says Laurent Grasso.
Additional Satellite Experiences of Metaphysical Maze
From the conception of Metaphysical Maze, Grasso was interested in extending the show beyond MASS MoCA by creating satellite experiences throughout the region. This resulted in three exhibitions organized with the artist at the Olana State Historic Site (Hudson, NY); Thomas Cole National Historic Site (Catskill, NY); and Burlington City Arts (Burlington, VT).
Metaphysical Maze: Laurent Grasso at Frederic Church’s Olana State Historic Site and the Thomas Cole National HIstoric Site, are on view November 22, 2026 through March 28, 2027. Across these two historic sites, Grasso brings his work into dialogue with the legacy of American landscape painting, particularly through his engagement with the Hudson River School.
Olana’s exhibition presents an immersive presentation of the artist’s film Orchid Island (2023) within the context of the Picture Gallery and Dining Room of Olana’s Historic House. Grasso has often intervened within existing historical displays, subtly inserting his own works into established contexts to challenge conventional museography and blur the boundaries between past and present. Elsewhere in the house, new paintings from Grasso’s series Studies into the Past will be hung alongside Church’s original paintings. These recent works draw directly on Frederic Church’s paintings. His fascination with Prussian explorer and naturalist Alexander von Humboldt — whose seminal work Cosmos, published 1845-1862, articulated the interconnectedness of science, the natural world, and spiritual concerns — is echoed in Grasso’s conceptual works, traversing links between the sciences and artistic representation.
At the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, Grasso’s exhibition is centered in the New Studio Gallery – and develops a direct dialogue with Cole’s work, particularly, Landscape with Clouds (1846-47). The presentation includes a new Studies into the Past oil painting inspired by Thomas Cole and the film Anima (2022), as well as a sculpture and neon installation.
At Burlington City Arts, Grasso’s film ARTIFICIALIS (2021) will be on view at the BCA Center from February 5 through May 8, 2027. The film extends his interest on the representation of nature by bringing nineteenth-century conceptions of exploration into dialogue with landscapes profoundly transformed by contemporary human activity. Using LIDAR scanners, hyperspectral cameras, and special effects, Grasso creates unstable, ambiguous images that blur the distinction between natural and artificial to create a new field of exploration.
About the Artist
Born in France in 1972, Laurent Grasso’s projects attempt to capture and restore phenomena invisible to the human eye and mind. Combining the most prospective theories and scientific tools with the oldest beliefs, his works invite us to travel through time and into a collision of worlds. Grasso is the recipient of the Meru Art*Science Award in Bergamo, Italy, the Chevalier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Marcel Duchamp Prize. He is the subject of a major monograph, Time Travel, published by Rizzoli in 2024. Grasso’s work has been shown in solo exhibitions at international institutions including the 798CUBE in Beijing, China, Heredium in Daejeon, South Korea, the Abbaye of Jumièges, in France, Tao Art in Taiwan, the Collège des Bernardins and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Centre Pompidou x West Bund Museum in Shanghai, the Jeonnam Museum of Art in Gwangyang, South Korea, the Palais Fesch, Musée des Beaux-Arts in Ajaccio, France, the Hermès Foundation in Tokyo, the Kunsthaus Baselland in Switzerland, the Musée d’Art Contemporain in Montréal, the Jeu de Paume and Palais de Tokyo in Paris, the Bass Museum of Art in Miami, and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C. amongst others. Grasso has been included in many international biennials including the 21st Sydney Biennale, Australia (2018); EVA International, Limerick, Ireland (2018); Kochi, India (2014); Gwangju 9th, South Korea (2012); Manifesta 8, Cartagena/ Murcia, Spain (2010); Sharjah, United Arab Emirates (2009); Moscow, Russia (2009); and Busan, South Korea (2004 and 2006).
Laurent Grasso has recently created several permanent installations in public spaces including Solar Wind on the Paris ring road, and a group of sculptures entitled Roots of the Future, which was installed for the 2024 Paris Olympic Village. Grasso was also commissioned to create a permanent site-specific installation for the ceiling of the new train station in Châtillon-Montrouge, as part of the Grand Paris project.
He is represented by Perrotin, Sean Kelly and Pedro Cera.
About MASS MoCA
MASS MoCA is a contemporary art museum that emphasizes bold creative exploration and fosters surprising connections between people every single day. It upholds artistic freedom and is an indispensable home for artists who stretch toward what has yet to be created. From its beginnings as the major textile mill Arnold Print Works in the mid-19th century, to its days as the Sprague Electric Company in the mid-20th century, to its current existence as a globally renowned, contemporary art museum and fabrication center, the MASS MoCA campus has a rich history of serving as an economic engine of the City of North Adams and the surrounding region. With vast galleries, artist studios and a variety of indoor and outdoor stages, MASS MoCA is able to embrace art in all forms. For more information visit massmoca.org or follow on Instagram at @massmoca.
Premier support for Metaphysical Maze is provided by Xtina and James R. Parks. Major support is provided by Anne and Greg Avis, Matthew Bliwise and Nicole Deller, Wolf Gordon, and Étant donnés, a program of Villa Albertine. MASS MoCA’s Building 5 exhibitions are made possible in part by the support of the MASS MoCA Ambassadors.
For more information and photo inquiries, please contact:
Jennifer Falk
Chief Communications Officer, MASS MoCA
press@massmoca.org
Kim Donica, kd@kimdonica.com