Indipendent Collector Outsider Art

Paul McCarthy
Pig Island, 2003–2010 (Detail)
Mixed media, 11 x 10 x 6 m
Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Pig Island
Paul McCarthy
20 May – 4 July 2010

Fondazione Nicola Trussardi
Palazzo Citterio
Via Brera 14
Milan, Italy
info@fondazionenicolatrussardi.com

Open daily, 10am - 8pm
Free entrance



www.fondazionenicolatrussardi.com

Curated by: Massimiliano Gioni, Artistic Director, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi

Fondazione Nicola Trussardi is proud to present Pig Island, the first major solo show in an Italian institution by Paul McCarthy. The foundation has invited the legendary American artist to premiere his monumental piece - along with a wide selection of works from 1970 to 2010 – at Palazzo Citterio. The Palazzo is one of the most unusual places in the city of Milan: it has been closed for over 25 years and now reopens thanks to the collaboration of Fondazione Nicola Trussardi and Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e per il Paesaggio di Milano.

McCarthy’s videos, performances, installations and sculptures transport visitors to a universe that combines Hollywood glamour with the dark side of the American dream. Combining minimalism and performance, Walt Disney and George W. Bush, McCarthy has used the human body, with all its desires and taboos, to create a unique, irreverent, and satirical language that combines Pop Art with fairy tales, the nightmares of the daily news with universal archetypes.

Pirates, clowns, Santa Claus puppets, home-made avatars, and mutant monsters populate McCarthy’s theater. Ketchup bottles, cans of food, mechanized pigs and cast body parts pop up in his exhibitions like the remnants of some bad dream. McCarthy’s shows are conceived as giant theme parks that stage raving bacchanals. Like a circus ringmaster, McCarthy constructs exhibitions in which celebrities impersonators interpret deranged parodies of movies, or in which Mickey Mouse and Snow White are caught in bestial acts of regression.

For the exhibition with Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Paul McCarthy presents one of his most complex and ambitious works, Pig Island, making its world debut at Palazzo Citterio. This giant sculpture grew in the artist’s studio to fill over 100 square meters with a surreal anthology of the themes that have cropped up throughout his career. The installation Pig Island is a carnivalesque amusement park in which human beings behave like pigs. A treasure island in reverse, Pig Island is a sculptural shipwreck in which pirates and their heroines throw themselves with abandon into wild revels. The installation is a contemporary Raft of the Medusa: its characters can finally cast off their inhibitions and reveal their all-too-human nature. A contemporary Merzbau, Pig Island is a work-in-progress that Paul McCarthy has been developing for over seven years and can be read as a titanic self-portrait of the artist.

The piece—accompanied by many others among which the historical Ketchup Sandwich (1970) and Chair With Butt Plug (1978), the brand new Paula Jones (2010), a selection of films realized with Damon McCarthy, and the monumental Static (Pink) (2004-2009)—is installed in one of the few examples of contemporary architecture in Milan. Still completely hidden to the public, and left in a state of disrepair, this building will be unveiled for the first time on this occasion. The show explores an underground bunker carved out beneath the city, where one finds the archeological artifacts of a Never-Never-Land: the exhibition Pig Island combines Paul McCarthy’s hypertrophic, Rabelaisian works with the rawness of a gigantic, endless work-in-progress.

With Pig Island, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi continues to produce works by today’s most interesting artists for the forgotten monuments of the City of Milan. Since 2003 the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi has organized exhibitions with, among others: Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, Darren Almond, Maurizio Cattelan, John Bock, Urs Fischer, Anri Sala, Paola Pivi, Martin Creed, Pawel Althamer, Peter Fischli & David Weiss, and Tino Sehgal, and Tacita Dean. Fondazione Nicola Trussardi has collected its projects in What Good Is The Moon? a 368 pages book, available in bookstores worldwide, which presents brand-new articles, behind-the-scenes information, and texts as well as over 450 photographs and illustrations. In this occasion, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi is also launching its new website at www.fondazionenicolatrussardi.com.

Pig Island, organized by Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, is Paul McCarthy’s first solo show with an Italian institution. Special thanks go to Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e per il Paesaggio di Milano. The exhibition is realized under the patronage of City of Milan’s Department of Culture and Region Lombardia. Thanks to Open Care, Milano.

ROMA – The Road to Contemporary Art

In 2010 Rome becomes the focal point of interest for professionals and contemporary art lovers during a week of exciting international events. The preview presentation of the new spaces of MACRO and the opening of MAXXI provide the most anticipated events during that period.

From May 27 – 30, Roma – The Road to Contemporary Art presents its third edition.

THE FAIR - ROMA - The Road to Contemporary Art opens the spring season dedicated to contemporary art, and presents 67 national and international galleries to offer visitors the unique opportunity to see and buy art works by some of the most established artists or from the most interesting new and emerging artists of the global artistic panorama.

A new and single venue hosts the Fair at MACRO Testaccio; the Fair is installed in the two pavilions of MACRO Future and in the amazing and recently restored Padiglione della Pelanda.

The ample outdoor areas in front of the Pavilions host large format art works, a bar, a restaurant and a lounge, as well as a platform dedicated to events and performances.

ROMA will be open every day from 4 pm to midnight, Sunday from 11 am to 8 pm.

AT THE FAIR - a rich program of events, starred chef's dinners, guided tours, meetings, conversations, presentations, artistic and musical performances, concerts, dj-sets, video projections, animate daily the Fair grounds at Macro Testaccio.

Between the various initiatives: Verba manent, exclusive visits to the Fair with important and well known personalities such as Alessandro Haber, Fausto Bertinotti, Nicola Spinosa, Piero Maccarinelli, Daniela Ferretti, Massimiliano Tonelli, Ermete Reallacci, Massimo Bottura; an unusual way to introduce the public to the fascinating language of contemporary art.

Eat with art, in the vip lounge at the Fair 4 prestigious female culinary artists and starred chefs such as Aurora Mazzucchelli, Rosanna Marziale, Nadia Moroni, Cristina Bowerman will realize a unique and exclusive gastronomic experience.

4 magazines x 4 parties: from Wednesday to Saturday, h. 11 pm to 2 am, four events of art, video, photo, music and live performances curated by Bang Art Magazine, Insideart, DROME Magazine and Fefè.

Displaying /Displaced, features Video, Sound Art Performances and concerts by internationally renowned artists. Furthermore interviews with artists, dealers and collectors, and the various Fair events, will be broadcast by Roma.Radio.Art.Fair, the first web radio created by a Fair.

AROUND THE FAIR - The Fair coordinates a program of exhibitions and events. The Complex of Santo Spirito in Sassia will host three exhibitions: Cose Mai Viste (Things you have never seen), curated by Achille Bonito Oliva, presents the art works of 5 important and never seen private collections: Berlingieri, Dalle Nogare, Di Maggio, La Gaia, Morra Greco. Accademia delle Accademie, curated by Shara Wasserman, will feature works by the fellows in visual arts from the foreign Academies and Cultural Institutes in Rome. Finally, Spirito, curated by Valentina Ciarallo and Pier Paolo Pancotto, features a site specific light installation by Mat Collishaw (an evening visit is recommended).

At the Casa dell’Architettura-Acquario Romano, Piazza d’Arte, curated by Eduardo Cicelyn, presents twenty photographs by Peppe Avallone to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the installations created for Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples.

A new and interesting initiative is Academies’ Feast, a project developed in cooperation with 9 of the more prominent foreign Academies and Cultural Institutes in Rome, and which will open on May 25th. The exhibitions of international artists from different countries, installed in the Academies or in other locations around the city, represent an authentic journey through the most recent artistic production in different parts of the world.

The GUIDE, complete with all the events, can be downloaded from the website.

ROMA – The Road to Contemporary Art is an event promoted by the Municipality of Rome, Cultural Policies and Communication Department and by the Chamber of Commerce of Roma.

 Mohamed Mourabiti à Estamp’Art Gallery

Estamp’Art Gallery, Première salle d’exposition, dédiée exclusivement à l’œuvre d’art sur papier : Gravures, lithographies, sérigraphies, folios et livres - d’art, inaugure son espace avec une exposition personnelle, sans précédent, d’œuvres gravées et folios de l’artiste peintre Mohamed Mourabiti avec des poèmes de Moustapha Nissabouri, Adil Hajii et Abdelhak Serhane. Une œuvre surprenante, empreinte de subtilité et intemporelle d’une des grandes figures de l’art contemporain marocain.

Exposition ouverte au public du 25 mai au 5 juillet 2010

Vernissage le mardi 25 mai à partir de 19h en présence de l’artiste

Estamp’Art Gallery

En partenariat avec l’Atelier Lahkim Bennani, éditeur d’estampes originales depuis 2002

11. Rue Imam Kabab. Belvédère. Casablanca. Tél : 0522249767   Mob : 0661183808

E-mail : eag@menara.ma E-mail : alb@menara.ma site web: www.alb.ma

Du lundi au vendredi : de 9h à 13h et de 14h30 à 19h

Samedi de 9h à 13h, le samedi après midi et dimanche sur rendez vous

Au plaisir de vous recevoir