The programming of Pirelli Hangar Bicocca will continue in the coming months with the planned opening of the exhibition of Maurizio Cattelan, the most internationally known Italian artist, by Title “Breath Ghosts Blind”, from 15 July 2021 to 20 February 2022. The museum space, currently closed to the public, will reopen as soon as the anti-Covid regulations allow.
Curated by Roberta Tenconi and Vicente Todolí, Maurizio Cattelan's solo exhibition combines a reconfiguration of a historical work with unpublished works that are presented for the first time in the spaces in the naves of Pirelli HangarBicocca, transforming them into a timeless monument.
“Breath Ghosts Blind” unfolds in a sequence of distinct acts that address existential themes and concepts such as the fragility of life, memory and the sense of individual and community loss. The site-specific project of the Pirelli exhibition HangarBicocca questions the current value system, between symbolic references and images that belong to the collective imagination.
Through his practice and throughout his thirty-year artistic career, Maurizio Cattelan (Padua, 1960) has staged actions often considered provocative and irreverent. His works highlight the paradoxes of society and reflect on political and cultural scenarios with depth and insight. Making use of iconic imagery and a biting visual language, his works often spark heated debates by fostering a sense of collective participation. In conceiving works starting from images that draw on moments, historical events, figures or symbols of contemporary society – sometimes evoked even in its most disturbing or traumatic aspects – the artist invites the spectator to change his point of view and to recognize the complexity and ambiguity of reality. In the city that has already been the protagonist of some of his most significant interventions – from Untitled (2004), the controversial installation in Piazza XXIV Maggio, to the monumental public sculpture LOVE (2010) – the exhibition is a continuation of Cattelan's visionary reflections on the most disorienting aspects of everyday life.
His projects and monographic exhibitions have been presented in internationally renowned institutions, including Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire (2019); Monnaie de Paris (2016); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2016 and 2011); Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel (2013); Ujazdowski Castle Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw (2012); Palazzo Reale, Milan, The Menil Collection, Houston, Deste Foundation Project Space, Hydra (2010); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2008); MMK Museum for Modern Art, Frankfurt (2007); Nicola Trussardi Foundation, Milan, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Civic Gallery of Contemporary Art, Trento (2004); MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Ludwig Museum, Cologne (2003); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2002).
Cattelan has also taken part in important group exhibitions, including the Yokohama Triennale (2017 and 2001); Venice Biennale (2011, 2009, 2003, 2001, 1999, 1997 and 1993); Gwangju Biennale (2010); Sydney Biennale (2008); Whitney Biennial, New York, Seville Biennial (2004); Biennale de Lyon (2003), Skulptur Projekte Münster (1997). Finalist of the Guggenheim Hugo Boss Prize (2000), the artist received the Quadrennial Prize of Rome (2009), the Arnold-Bode Prize, Kassel (2005), an honorary degree in Sociology from the University of Trento ( 2004) and the title of Professor honoris causa in sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara (2018).
On the occasion of the exhibition “Breath Ghosts Blind” in Pirelli HangarBicocca, a publication will be created with Marsilio Editori which includes critical contributions by Francesco Bonami and Nancy Spector on Cattelan's practice together with a conversation between the artist and the curators Roberta Tenconi and Vicente Todolí. Furthermore, the monograph will collect a rich photographic documentation of the installed works, together with reflections on the themes raised in the exhibition through the eyes of philosophers, theologians and writers, including Arnon Grunberg, Andrea Pinotti and Timothy Verdon.
Maurizio Cattelan's exhibition will be visible in the space of the Navate at the same time as that of Neil Beloufa “Digital Mourning” extended up to 9 January 2022 in the Shed space. The exhibition of Chen Zhen "Short-circuits" will close to the public on 6 June 2021. In addition to the exhibition activity, in the next few months of 2021, Pirelli HangarsBicocca will maintain the extensive program of dissemination, teaching, research, inclusion and training activities both in digital form and, when possible, in its physical spaces.
All the in-depth contents of the exhibitions and cultural projects of Pirelli HangarsBicocca are online at pirellihangarbicocca.org with the new digital proposal “Bubbles”.
