Vincent Todolì, former director of the Tate Modern in London, will be the new artist advisor of the HangarBicocca spaces, who signs the programming for the next three years, from October 2013 to April 2015. The calendar will alternate, in the various exhibition spaces, established international artists to young artists, both Italian and foreign, with an already consolidated career. All exhibitions will be produced from scratch especially for HangarBioccca or presented in collaboration with other contemporary art institutions.
The program begins on September 20, 2013 with The Visitors, an installation by Ragnar Kjartansson (Reykjavík, 1976), an artist also present at the Venice Biennale, made up of nine video projections that design a great choral musical performance; on 31 October 2013 Islands opens, a major retrospective of Dieter Roth (Hannover, 1930 – Basel, 1998), which includes his most important installation works, paintings, prints, videos and films made – often with the collaboration of his son Björn Roth – between the 70s and the 90s. The exhibition program continues in January 2014 with a solo exhibition by Micol Assaël (Rome, 1979), already known internationally thanks to exhibitions at the Palais de Tokyo, Paris and the Kunsthalle Basel installations based on physical dynamics that involve the viewer perceptively and mentally; in the spring of 2014 there will be a personal exhibition of Cildo Meireles (Rio de Janeiro, 1948), one of the most important artists of recent decades, also born thanks to the collaboration with the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid and the Serralves museum in Porto, which presents some fundamental installations of his path including A Traves and Babel. In May 2014, HangarBicocca will host the anthological exhibition of Pedro Paiva (Lisbon, 1979) and João Maria Gusmão (Lisbon, 1977), artistic duo who work on the theme of cinema and the darkroom, also chosen by Massimiliano Gioni for this edition of the Biennale from Venice.
The first Italian retrospective of Joan Jonas is scheduled for June 2014 (New York, 1936), considered the initiator of the artistic practice of performance; in September of the same year HangarBicocca hosts the solo exhibition of Céline Condorelli (Paris, 1974), who stands out for her ability to build relationships with space, while in October the space hosts Juan Muñoz (Madrid, 1953 - Ibiza, 2001), one of the most important post-war sculptors, with a project that includes his most important installations, including Double Bind; Lastly, 2015 will open with Damián Ortega (Mexico City, 1967), a well-known international artist present at this edition of the Venice Biennale, whose works and environmental installations have transformed the traditional idea of sculpture.
With the new programming the Milanese space is confirmed as a place capable of attracting an international public with exhibitions of strong curatorial rigor and great visual impact, thanks to the presence of monumental works rarely shown to the public.
Marco Tronchetti Provera, President of the HangarBicocca Foundation, declared: “HangarBicocca best expresses the values of innovation, internationality and attention to the local area which are the basis of Pirelli's corporate culture. The 200 visitors registered in the first year of the relaunch reward our commitment and confirm how much investing in culture can positively affect the city and the local area. The appointment of Vicente Todolí as Artistic Advisor demonstrates our long-term vision of the project: in the next three years the international dimension of the space will be further accentuated, through an exhibition program that will bring highly prestigious artists to Milan and will contribute to putting HangarBicocca in dialogue with museums and cultural institutions from all over the world”.
Vicente Todolí, in announcing the programming, repeatedly underlined how the uniqueness of the space and of the exhibitions represents the starting point in the conception of the artistic calendar for HangarBicocca: "The characteristics of HangarBioccca will make each exhibition project truly unique: the meeting between space and art, their cohabitation and coexistence will emphasize the potential of both. As if one plus one equals three."
We asked the curator of HangarBicocca, Andrea Lissoni, a few questions, who underlined the importance of continuing in continuity with the guidelines that have led to the success achieved to date: attention to the dimension of space and time, emphasis on the coexistence of multiple languages, the ability to touch on current issues and to intercept changes future.
FIRST Art – The 2013 program is certainly of great interest. A great choice with artists of "international key" engaged in a decidedly "innovative" art form. Can we expect this to be the new trend? What future for emerging Italian artists?
Andrea Lissoni – In the program for HangarBicocca we have identified two Italian artists who live abroad, known internationally but not celebrated on the art market, distinguished by the ability to give life to works that dialogue with the public from a sensorial and intellectual point of view and which, in the process of creating the exhibition in particular, they activate a collaboration with Pirelli. On the other hand, it was inevitable, we have identified female artists who have not had important exhibitions in national public institutions in recent times. In the future we will continue along these lines.
FIRST Art – The concept of art and cinema is interesting, can you tell us something more?
Andrea Lissoni – It is a combination that we have already explored with the exhibition dedicated to Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi (April 2012) and then with Apichatpong Weerasethakul (March 2013). Once a year, inevitably, cinema, in various forms, will return. The first occasion is the exhibition of Gusmao and Paiva (May 2014), which will surprise the public with a tiny, archaic and magical cinema, but deeply personal and intimate
