
In Genesis 1:29, Malena Grigoli animates material from the history of 12210 Euclid Ave (home of The Sculpture Center), specifically its 1970s occupant, a vegetarian restaurant with the titular name, Genesis 1:29. Inspired by one of the restaurant’s staples—freshly baked bread—Grigoli cultivated yeast in the gallery, summoning the invisible accumulation of ambient yeast. Using a functioning, long-ago-salvaged door in the center’s basement as both a cast for the cultivated yeast and a portal into the past, Genesis 1:29 brings together fragments from the building’s history to explore the labor of inhabiting a space—an intangible yet enduring presence within its walls. About the Artist: Malena Grigoli is an artist based in Cleveland, Ohio using writing, choreography, and image-making to articulate elements of her primary media: lived time, life cycles, interpersonal negotiations, and maintenance. Beginning in 2024, she directed the year-long project 9413 Sophia Ave, a choreographed deconstruction and performed maintenance of the built environment supported by the City of Cleveland’s Transformative Arts Fund. Grigoli currently serves on the board of SHED Projects in Cleveland, Ohio.