HangarBicocca, the art space supported by Pirelli, presents boo boo, the first solo exhibition in Italy by Céline Condorelli which includes about twenty works including installations, sculptures and videos made between 2008 and 2014, as well as a selection of writings by the artist. Curated by Andrea Lissoni, the exhibition is held in the spaces of the "Shed" from 11 December to 10 May, proposing a selection of the most significant works by the artist who, during her artistic career, stood out for her ability to interpret relationship between art and architecture, the space and historical-social context, through a performative and audience-involving approach. A new work, born from an unpublished work collaboration with the innovative Pirelli Technological Pole in Settimo Torinese, brings us back to the theme of production processes and their influence on human relationships and the surrounding context.
boo boo is the first exhibition dedicated to Céline Condorelli which accounts for her multifaceted activity which includes art, architecture, curating, design, writing and teaching.
Her transversal attitude has in fact led her to reinvent and update both the culture of art and design coming from a Italian tradition, such as that of Bruno Munari, how much the furrow of theconceptual art and especially that one relational of the nineties of the last century.
The artist has conceived the installation of the exhibition by deploying in the space and in the various objects that narrate it, such as informative texts for the public and captions, its singular multifaceted features, interacting with all the professionals of the institution and creating a specific congruence between the contents, the graphic layout and the display and communication system. And she explains: “there is a whole world in the shadow of each result”.
Through the use of many different media, such as sculpture, video, installation, Céline Condorelli has conceived the exhibition as a context in which objects and the public activate the coexistence of ideas and functionality. The works of him inhabit as semi-functional structures the ex-industrial space of HangarBicocca where small but radical interventions alter the structure of the place in depth. The entire "Shed" is subject to a variation of times and lights that mark a new temporality. The artist forces and modifies the functional architectural limits of the building (doors and windows) and concentrates on commonly used structures such as curtains, seats, lamps to allude to the loss of boundaries between the time of work and the time of leisure.
The path develops around two areas outlined by curtains, a recurring motif in the artist's work: one illuminated by natural light and by rhythms of light capable of reproducing the different solar intensity from dawn, an area that metaphorically represents the "day", and one characterized by a greater darkness, the night".
The division between the two environments – light and dark, black and white – is in direct relationship with two works in the exhibition: White Gold (2012) which refers to the artist's research on the production of cotton in Egypt in the early twentieth century (whose plant was called "white gold of Egypt"), and the new production for HangarBicocca which refers to the use of Carbon Black (carbon black or lampblack), a component at the base of the production of Pirelli tyres. Support Structure, Red (2012-2014), is an ideal "support structure" for the two works: installed in the center of the exhibition, it acts as a display of the sources on which the artist's research on cotton and rubber is based, functioning as a sort of index or atlas of documents, photographs and visual fragments referring to the works themselves.
The new work produced by Céline Condorelli in collaboration with the Pirelli factory in Settimo Torinese, starts from a reflection by the artist on the production processes of a tyre, on the materials used during its manufacturing and on the people involved in this development. The Industrial Park of Settimo Torinese, which represents the most technologically advanced and efficient plant of the Pirelli group in the world, with a central body designed by the architect Renzo Piano, constituted the ideal context of innovative and technological excellence in which the artist worked "physically". Condorelli on the one hand intervened in the development process to alter the final product, on the other she documented the materials and the people who participated in the creation of the work. The result of this work is an installation which, like a long strip on the floor, maintains and evokes a trace of the process that has taken place and at the same time crosses the space, redesigning it.
Many works in the exhibition challenge the relationship between art and everyday life and blur the boundary between the aura of the work and its possible functionality. The works in boo boo they offer opportunities for sitting, rest, reflection, listening, conversation, sharing, suggesting aggregation and exchange between people. Objects and furniture become something else: a table is also a staircase, a sculpture is an environment for plants to grow, a series of tables become a library.
The Weird Charismatic Power That Capitalism Has For Teenagers (to Johan Hartle), 2014 for example, it lends itself to conversation for two or four; the construction The Double and the Half (to Avery Gordon), 2014 it is an assemblage made up of different support and sharing surfaces which offers an unprecedented view towards the outside of the building, projecting the limits of the exhibition onto the outside.
The title of the exhibition on the one hand it refers to the playful aspect linked to the sound "bau bau" of the dog's barking, on the other to the etymological meaning of the word boo which in the German language means construction. Combining these two levels, which recall both the experience of the Bauhaus (an important historical reference for the artist) and the image of the animal, woof woof (building under construction) refers to the idea of process specific to all his work. Bau Bau it is also the title of the work presented in 2014 at the GfZK in Leipzig (Germany), where Céline Condorelli transformed one of the museum's rooms into a bar. A flashing version of her sign will be placed on the external walls of the HangarBicocca exhibition space.
Céline Condorelli's work refers to the concepts of support and friendship, understood as essentially political relationships, of alliance and responsibility, which influence the different ways of collective work. Relationships that materialize through cultural and economic, physical and social elements that the artist herself has defined “Support Structures” (support structures). “Support Structures” is also the title of a publication by him, which will be reprinted for the occasion by Sternberg Press.
Céline Condorelli (Paris, 1974) lives and works in London. His work has been exhibited in numerous art institutions including Artist Space New York (2009), SALT Istanbul (2012), Project Art Center Dublin and Grazer Kunstverein (both 2013). In 2010 you exhibited at the European biennial of contemporary art Manifesta 8, while in 2014 the Chisenhale Gallery in London and the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven dedicated two personal exhibitions to you. Céline Condorelli co-founder of theartists run space Eastside Projects (Birmingham, UK), born in 2009, where he has also curated several exhibitions including Curtain Show (2010) and Puppet show (2013). In 2009 she wrote and edited the book Support Structures and recently published The Company She Keeps (2014). Over the years the artist has been tutor at various academic institutions and since 2012 he has been teaching at the NABA (New Academy of Fine Arts) in Milan.
The exhibition program of HangarBicocca
The exposure boo boo di Céline Condorelli is part of the exhibition program designed by Vicente Todolí together with Andrea Lissoni. The exhibition project is presented in conjunction with the solo exhibition of Joan Jonas, curated by Andrea Lissoni, on display until 1 February 2015. The 2015 Pirelli HangarBicocca calendar will continue with exhibitions by Juan Muñoz (April 2015), Damián Ortega (June 2015) and Philippe Parreno (October 2015).
HangarBicocca
HangarBicocca, the contemporary art space supported by Pirelli, is the natural continuation of a long tradition of attention to culture, research and innovation that has accompanied the company since its foundation more than 140 years ago. Thanks to the commitment of Pirelli, HangarBicocca makes high-level programming and a series of activities for children and families accessible to the public, and has now become a point of reference for Milan and for the international public.
