An Italian artist known around
the world for his controversial works has drawn attention once
more, curating a Turin exhibition entitled 'Shit and Die'.
Maurizio Cattelan's show is part of Artissima, a
contemporary art fair scheduled to run from Thursday until
Sunday at the Fiat headquarters in the industrial city, and
focuses on death and the banality of evil.
The exhibition leaves a sharp impression on visitors. The
venue is the beautiful Baroque Palazzo Cavour, filled for the
occasion with disconcerting works. Such as real dollar bills
totaling 40,000 dollars that cover the walls of the hall and the
large internal staircase, the work of Eric Doeringer. The work,
called 'The Hug 2014', echoes a similar 2011 show by Hans Peter
Feldmann, who with 100,000 dollars from the Hugo Boss Prix
plastered the walls of the New York Guggenheim.
'Shit and Die' revolves around death and Turin, a city that
for the occasion is made to symbolize beauty and the fatigue of
existence, the twentieth-century revolution, industrialization,
love of culture and social struggles.
Since this past summer, when Artissimia commissioned
Cattelan for its opening exhibition, the artist behind 'Dito
Medio' and the others he got involved in the project combed
Turin for secrets and stories. Cattelan and the others walked
the most hidden alleyways, went into cemeteries and both
well-known museums and those less so, such as the anatomy
museum, the Lombroso museum, the fruit museum and the Mollino
house, which has itself become part of the exhibition.
The exhibition is a unique one and will undoubtedly have
its fans and critics, as is always the case with Cattelan's
work.
In the exhibition halls - including Cavour's study covered
in plastic "to safeguard the spirit of the statesman' - there
are the gallows used in Turin until 1863 to hang those condemned
to die, photos by Carlo Mollino and Carol Rama, furniture
created by the Gabetti-Isola architects for an Olivetti building
never built and distorted portraits of Turin 'VIPs' including
Mayor Piero Fassino, constitutional law expert Gustavo
Zagrebelsky and former Juventus star player Alessandro Del
Piero.
"The show aims to be 'banal', because everything is banal
in life, everything has already been seen. With a few
certainties as well, such as shit and death," said Francesco
Bonami, a curator working closely with Cattelan.
"We've all been there," he said, pointing at a small photo
showing Toulouse Lautrec squatting on a Cote d'Azur beach with
his trousers down, defecating.
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