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Roberto Cuoghi, Senza titolo, 2006. Courtesy of Massimo De Carlo Gallery, Milan |
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Gabriele Basilico, Contact (Bertoia), 1984. Courtesy Gabriele Basilico e Studio Guenzani, Milano. |
Fabrizio Clerici, Il labirinto, 1983. Private Collection, Courtesy Archivio Fabrizio Clerici, Rome.
Bruna Esposito, Senza titolo, DVD per la proiezione di un ombra, 2005. Città Sant'Angelo, Museolaboratorio Ex Manifattura Tabacchi. Photo : Antonio Capone e Lagamon, Rome.
Nanni Balestrini, Sì alla violenza operaia, 1972. Collezione privata, Carpi (Modena), Italy.
Diego Perrone, La fusione della campana, 2008. Courtesy of Massimo De Carlo Gallery, Milan.
Alessandro Pessoli, Primo Giorno, 2005/06. Courtesy of Sara Albrecht.
Francesco Vezzoli, film still from An embroidered Trilogy, 1997-99. Courtesy Galleria Giò Marconi, Milan.
Giuseppe Gabellone, Untitled, 1999. Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Restricted gift of the Collectors Forum.
Marinella Senatore, All the Things I need, 2006. Collection of the Artist, Madrid.
Michelangelo Pistoletto, Le trombe del giudizio, 1968. Collezione Cittadellarte- Fondazione Pistoletto Collection, Biella. |
Museum of Contemporary Art Italics: Italian Art between Tradition and Revolution, 1968-2008 is a ground-breaking exhibition devoted to contemporary Italian art and creativity, co-presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago, and the Palazzo Grass. Guest curated by Francesco Bonami, Italics presents more than 80 Italian artists active during the past four decades whose work offers a deep sense of originality and vitality, whether embracing their classical roots, breaking away from traditions, or reflecting the social transformation of Italy. Italics examines the revolutionary art production and experimentation of artists whose work spans all visual media to create thought-provoking dialogues across generations and cultures. Presented in arrangements loosely structured around themes of family, self, politics, and design, Italics connects the work of internationally known Italian artists from an earlier generation including two of the leading exponents of Arte Povera — Mario Merz and Alighiero Boetti — along with Lucio Fontana and Alberto Burri — to the Transavanguardia artists — Francesco Clemente and Enzo Cucchi — with a younger generation of artists such as Maurizio Cattelan, Stefano Arienti, Paola Pivi, Giuseppe Gabellone, and Luisa Lambri. Yet at the same time, Italics questions the desire to reduce Italian art to its well known artistic movements, as well as challenges stereotypical notions of Italy. Contemporary Italian art is full of contradictions and dualities: the past and the present; tradition and revolution; religion and sensuality; ancient ruins and high design. While the term "Italian art" conjures iconic frescoes, romantic human forms, and gilded richness, Italy is also a source of new creativity and innovation. From Arte Povera to minimalism, from post-pop to the neo avant-garde, contemporary Italian art forges new identities and offers fresh perspectives on its changing culture. Francesco Bonami says, "This country, blessed with so many exceptional talents, has trapped them in an invisible box. Italics does not pretend to rewrite 40 years of art history, but rather to tell a different tale in a new way." Italics is the first major exhibition to substantially address the vast transformation in Italian art since the Guggenheim Museum show Italian Metamorphosis, which focused on Italian art from 1943 to 1967. Italics begins in 1968, the year that marked the end of the post-war boom in the rebuilding of Italy after World War II, and the eruption of a global cultural revolution that radically challenged social foundations. The exhibition opens in the fourth-floor atrium with a spectacular new sculptural work by Maurizio Cattelan, titled All (2008). Nine shrouded corpses, sculpted from white marble, symbolically lay to rest the ghosts of the Italian Renaissance and Baroque past, while offering commentary on the tensions of the present moment. Italics looks through the landscape of history to view the past not as a burden but as a source of endless inspiration. Immersed in the weight of Italy's history and tradition, Italics attempts to excavate a great, ancient, and contemporary civilization that is split between a glorious past and an uncertain future. Italics presents a close-up examination of artistic expression that grapples with an understanding of both local and international cultural transformations. Additional featured artists working in all variety of media from sculpture and painting to drawing and installation, include Carla Accardi, Enrico Baj, Gabriele Basilico, Letizia Battaglia, Mario Ceroli, Domenico Gnoli, Marisa Merz, Bruno Munari, Pino Pascali, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mimmo Rotella, Ettore Sottsass, and Patrick Tuttofuoco, among many others. The MCA presentation is organized by Tricia Van Eck, Curatorial Coordinator and Curator of Artist's Books. The exhibition was on view at Palazzo Grassi in the fall of 2008 and is guest curated by Francesco Bonami, who is the artistic director of the Fondazione Sandretto ReRebaudengo per l'Arte in Turin, Pitti Immagine Discovery in Florence, and ENEL Contemmporanea. He previously served as the MCA’s Manilow Senior Curator and the Manilow Senior Curator-at-Large. He is also a curator of the 2010 Whitney Biennial in New York. Born in Florence, he closely follows the movements and development of contemporary Italian art. Italics: Italian Art between Tradition and Revolution, 1968-2008 includes critical essays by the curator Francesco Bonami, along with Guido Guerzoni, Giuliano da Empoli, Francesco Manacorda, and Paola Nicolin that chart how contemporary art has been appreciated and consumed by Italians and tourists alike since 1968. The central section of the catalogue presents the works selected for the show by the curator Francesco Bonami. These range from Michelangelo Pistoletto, Gilberto Zorio, and Mario Merz, to Patrick Tuttofuoco, Ra di Martino, and Paola Pivi. The third part contains a chronology that summarizes the political, social, and cultural events year by year from 1968. There are 200 color illustrations.
Lucio Fontana, Ambiente Bianco, 1968. Fondazione Lucio Fontana, Milan.
Andrea Salvino, Loin du Vietnam, 2007. Courtesy Antonio Colombo Arte Contempornea, Milan. Photo by Paolo Vandrasch.
Michelangelo Pistoletto, The Cubic Meter of Infinity in a Mirroring Cube, 1966-2007. Installation view from Italics: Italian Art between Tradition and Revolution 1968-2008 at Palazzo Grassi. Courtesy Galeria Continua, Beijing, 2008. Photo by Santi Caleca.
Massimo Bartolini , Senza titolo (Airplane), 2008. Courtesy of Massimo De Carlo Gallery, Milan.
Alessandra Ariatti, Lorenzo, 1995. Pareti Collection. |
Maurizio Cattelan, All, 2008. Courtesy of Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin, Paris and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York. Photo credit: Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, Austria. |
Pietro Roccasalva, The Skeleton Key III, 2007. Museion-Museo d'arte moderna e contemporanea Bolzano. |
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Liam Gillick, Rescinded Production, 2008. Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Gift of Mary and Earle Ludgin by exchange. Photo courtesy of Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York |
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Liam Gillick, Three perspectives and a short scenario, 2008, installation at Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam. Courtesy of the artist. Photos by Bob Goedewaagen.
Liam Gillick, Three perspectives and a short scenario, 2008, installation at Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam. Courtesy of the artist. Photos by Bob Goedewaagen.
Liam Gillick, Three perspectives and a short scenario, 2008, installation at Witte de With, Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam. Courtesy of the artist. Photos by Bob Goedewaagen.
Liam Gillick, Lapsed Reduction, 2008. Collection Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. Gift of Mary and Earle Ludgin by exchange. Photo courtesy of Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York |
Museum of Contemporary Art Three Perspectives and a Short Scenario is the final installment of a multi-part exhibition project by four international art museums on the work of acclaimed British artist Liam Gillick. Gillick emerged in the early 1990s as part of a re-energized British art scene, producing a sophisticated body of work ranging from his signature "platform" sculptures — architectural structures made of aluminum and colored Plexiglas that play with social interaction — to wall paintings, text sculptures, and published texts that reflect on social, cultural, and political systems of authority and how they manifest themselves in art, architecture, and graphic design. As a complement to his art exhibit, Gillick also takes on the role of a curator in Liam Gillick Curates the MCA Collection. Liam Gillick’s work breaks through visual art boundaries, with architectural, structural, and spatial Liam Gillick: Three Perspectives and a Short Scenario is an unprecedented collaboration between four international art institutions. As an investigation into Gillick’s practice and an in-depth study of his work to date, the exhibition adopts a different form at each museum. First, the Kunsthalle Zurich presented a solo show that ran parallel to his exhibit at the Witte de With in Rotterdam; this was followed by a “scenario” at Kunstverein München; and concludes with the exhibition at the MCA, organized by MCA Curator Dominic Molon. The exhibitions are divided equally between the artist’s contribution — a network of dark gray architectural screens and gray carpet structuring the exhibition space; a projection of slides that charts his art projects throughout his career, based on documents of his projects from 1988 up to the "unitednationplaza" project in Berlin which he recently completed; and a vitrine featuring his graphic designs and publications — and a contribution determined by the curator of each venue. The exhibitions also have a uniform conceptual premise: a poster of a comic figure, one created for each institution, greeting visitors at the entrance. These exhibitions collectively form a self-critical mid-career survey of Gillick’s work that questions and contemplates the relationship between the museum and the artist. At the Witte de With, a series of emerging artists’ projects were presented within his exhibition to evoke his collective practice; the Kunsthalle Zurich focused on ephemeral and performance-based work; and in Munich, the “Scenario” featured a staged theatrical production. The MCA’s “perspective” features a single, major representation of Gillick’s object and installation-based work, transforming the ceiling of one of the MCA’s main floor spaces into a grid of radiant color by replacing the 576 lighting panels with multi-colored transparent and opaque Plexiglas. His work joins a generation of artists including Rirkrit Tiravanija, Jorge Pardo, Dominque Gonzalez-Foerster, and Andrea Zittel, who come to define "relational aesthetics," an idea that emphasizes the shifting social role and function of art at the turn of the millennium. Gillick's work has had a profound impact on a contemporary understanding of the influence of art and architecture on interpersonal communication and interactions in the public space. Born in England in 1964, Liam Gillick graduated from Goldsmiths College, University of London, in 1987, and currently lives and works in London and New York. He was nominated for the prestigious Turner Prize in 2002, and has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and The Power Plant, Toronto (2003); the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, and ICA London (2005); and his work has been featured in important group exhibitions such as the Tate Triennial (2006), the 50th Venice Biennale (2003), and Documenta X (1997). He represented Germany in this year's Venice Biennale. Three Perspectives and a Short Scenario is complemented by two publications: a critical reader featuring texts by theorists, art historians, critics, and artists; and a separate book featuring the presentations at all four participating institutions and a conversation between the project’s four curators. The exhibitions were presented at the Witte de With, Rotterdam, and the Kunsthalle Zurich from January to March 2008; and the scenario was at the Kunstverein in Munich from September to November 2008. |
Liam Gillick, Three perspectives and a short scenario, 2008. Courtesy Liam Gillick / © Liam Gillick. |
Daria Martin, film still from Minotaur, 2008. Courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley, London. |
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Daria Martin, Minotaur (2008), Installation view, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York. Photo: Benoit Pailley, 2009. |
Daria Martin, film still from Minotaur, 2008. Courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley, London.
Daria Martin, film still from Minotaur, 2008. Courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley, London.
Daria Martin, film still from Minotaur, 2008. Courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley, London. |
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Museum of Contemporary Art Daria Martin’s film Minotaur pays tribute to the work of legendary dancer Anna Halprin, one of the key pioneers of postmodern dance and movement. The film depicts a sensuous duet choreographed by Halprin based on the Auguste Rodin 1886 sculpture Minotaur. The exhibit is on view October 3, 2009 to February 7, 2010. Rodin’s erotic sculpture portrays the part-man, part-bull figure from Greek mythology with a naked young female figure in its grasp. Martin carefully edited the film to juxtapose the movements of the two dancers with close-up views of the sculpture; images of the sculpture in a book; views of the wooded exterior of Halprin's Northern California studio where the dance takes place; and shots of Halprin herself. In doing so, Martin creates a complex and multilayered synthesis of various art forms — film, dance, and sculpture — while simultaneously meditating on the process through which art is made, and the shifting sexual dynamics between men and women as embodied in both the sculpture and Halprin’s performative interpretation. Halprin’s life and work significantly influences Martin’s use of implicit sensuality and a heightened awareness of the body and its relationship to other objects and the surrounding space. Minotaur interweaves highly conceptualized and choreographed physical movement; layered stagecraft; and editing and cinematographic techniques evoking a broad range of both mainstream and experimental filmmaking. Daria Martin was born in 1973 in San Francisco, a few miles away from Anna Halprin’s dance school and studio. She currently lives in London. Most recently, Martin’s work was presented in solo exhibitions at the Kunstverein in Hamburg, the Kunsthalle in Zurich, as well as the Showroom in London. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions including “Uncertain States of America,” which originated at the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art in Oslo and traveled internationally; in “Emblematic Display” at the ICA in London; and in the Beck’s “Futures” show, also at the ICA, as well as in “The Moderns” at Castello di Rivoli in Turin, among many others. Her films have been screened in many international venues, including the Tate Modern, the Tate Britain, the Royal College of Art, the Vienna Secession, and the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol. The MCA presentation is coordinated by Dominic Molon, MCA Curator.
Daria Martin, film still from Minotaur, 2008. Courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley, London. |
Daria Martin, film still from Minotaur, 2008. Courtesy of the artist and Maureen Paley, London. |
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