Aug 21 2015

Field Trip: Fondazione Prada

by Elaine W. Ng

The inaugural exhibition “Serial Classic,” which also coincided with the parallel show “Portable Classic” at their Venice venue, was co-curated by art historian Salvatore Settis. “Serial Classic” looks at the function and significance of copies in the classical world of Greek and Roman antiquity, which is usually seen as being synonymous with originality and artistic excellence. Here visitors encounter numerous, beautiful copies of major masterpieces, while in Venice audiences were confronted with smaller scale replicas of highly coveted works of art. All photos by Elaine W. Ng for ArtAsiaPacific.

The architecture complemented, rather than detracted from, the beauty of the classical art reproductions. Among the new spaces of the Fondazione is one aptly named Podium, which is specifically designated for showing temporary exhibitions. One of the most striking aspects of this space is a floor of moving panels that act like terraced, life-size plinths, giving breathtaking effect to the statuary on display.

Other novel use of materials include the walls of the new buildings, which, from afar, look like roughcast or pebbledash. Upon closer inspection, however, one can see that the walls are made of anti-explosion, aluminum-foam energy absorbers, more commonly used in aircraft and military vehicles.

On the second floor of the Podium is Torso and Right Hand of a Statue of Penelope, an original marble statue from circa 450 BCE. It is surmised that two statues of Penelope were made at that time: one for Athens to mark the end of war against the Persians; and the other as a gift from Greece to the king of Persia for peace negotiations, which was displayed in Persepolis. The seated torso was discovered in the 1930s at the Treasury of Persepolis, and is on loan from the collection of the National Museum of Iran, Tehran. One can only imagine how difficult it was to secure this loan, which is the highlight of the entire exhibition. The back of the sculpture is particularly elegant.

The original Penelope among many copies of other Penelope statuary.

Another unusual sight was plaster copies of Caryatid from the Attic in the Forum of Augustus and Caryatid from the Canopus in Hadrian’s Villa—each made in 2015—suspended from an exposed I-beam.

Beside the Fondazione’s new structure was the Haunted House, built using the original structure of an old distillery. The building stands out because it is covered in 24-karat gold leaf, which Rem Koolhaas (whose architecture studio designed the Fondazione’s new structures) has described as “a cheap cladding material compared to traditional claddings like marble or even paint.” Economical or not, it has a mesmerizing effect.

Inside the Haunted House are permanent installations by American artists ROBERT GOBER and LOUSIE BOURGEOIS. Seen here is a giant box of Farina Hot Wheat Cereal, which is in fact an untitled work by Gober from 1993–94.

LOUSIE BOURGEOIS’s 1996 installation Cell (Clothes), comprising a circular construction of old door frames and iron gates, along with personal objects that were owned by the late artist.

In May, the 22-year-old Fondazione Prada—the cutting-edge, cultural nonprofit organization run by the Italian luxury fashion house, itself internationally renowned for its handbags and clothing line coveted by fashionistas around the world—opened its new Milan venue in an old distillery dating back to 1910, in the southern part of the city. The new site is comprised of seven pre-existing buildings (comprising warehouses, laboratories and a brewing silo) along with three new structures developed by Rotterdam-based architecture studio Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). Rem Koolhaas, a founding partner of OMA, which has worked on numerous architectural projects including those in Qatar, Taiwan and China, describes the Fondazione’s Milan venue as “not a preservation project and not a new architecture. Two conditions that are usually kept separate here confront each other in a state of permanent interaction . . . By introducing so many spatial variables, the complexity of the architecture will promote an unstable, open programming, where art and architecture will benefit from each other’s challenges.” The new site also summarizes the Fondazione’s cultural statement, which says, “Our main interest is ideas and the ways in which mankind has transformed ideas into specific disciplines and cultural products: literature, cinema, music, philosophy, art and science. With the new venue, the Fondazione’s range of knowledge will be expanded. Each field will be afforded its autonomy, but have the same overall aim. They will co-exist with one another, leading to unpredictable resonances and cultural intersections.”

In another new space called the Sud gallery is a long corridor of artworks from Collezione Prada. It includes a range of works, from New Dada to Minimalism, which are arranged in relation to colors and period of materials. Among the many diverse pieces is BARNETT NEWMAN’s Onement VI (1953), which is hung as if in a stairwell of a domestic setting.

Another small gallery includes 57 paintings hung in salon style, ranging from coveted Italian modernists such as ALBERTO BURRI and SALVATORE SCARPITTA to contemporary giants from abroad like JEFF KOONS and LUC TUYMANS.

At the very end of the Sud, one encountered a large, expansive warehouse called the Deposito. On display are six works by TOBIAS REHBERGER, CARSTEN HÖLLER and ROSEMARIE TROCKEL, SARAH LUCAS, ELMGREEN & DRAGSET, ATELIER VAN LIESHOUT, and WALTER DE MARIA, all of which utilize cars in their works in various shapes, sizes and states of condition.

In the pre-existing Cisterna space, made up of three adjacent, vertical-sized buildings that had once contained working cisterns, is a small exhibition entitled “Trittico,” based loosely on the idea that artworks are understood through other works. By putting three works from the Collezione Prada together—which span from the 16th to 21st century—unanticipated patterns emerge. Upon entering the space, one first encounters the very austere piece, 1 metro cubo di terra (“1 meter cube of earth,” 1967) by PINO PASCALI.

Pascali’s piece is followed by DAMIEN HIRST’s Lost Love (2000), comprising a gynecologist’s chair, medical and surgical equipments and tropical fish placed in a large aquarium tank.

In the last room of the Cisterna, sitting on a large white pedestal, is the small, quiet work Case II (1968) by EVA HESSE.

The Fondazione’s new spaces include a cinema, whose basement houses a permanent installation by THOMAS DEMAND. Known for his paper reconstructions of architectural spaces that he then photographs (including various recording studios and Saddam Hussein’s kitchen, among others), here Demand has created Processo Grottesco (“Grotesque Process,” 2015)—a recreation of a subterranean cave in Majorca. Included in the installation are glass cases filled with Demand’s reference materials—from postcards, books and magazines on Majorcan caves, to his actual sketches of stalactites and stalagmites, to 3D models for the project.

THOMAS DEMAND’s reconstructed grotto, dramatically lit and on display, was made using 30 tons of gray cardboard, shaped by a computer and carefully laid out in 900,000 sections by the artist. On view is what appears to be the cave’s rock chamber, along with its endless stalactite and stalagmite formations. It’s almost better than visiting the real thing.

At Fondazione Prada, a new tower is still in the process of being constructed and will open at a later date next year. It will surely be something complementary and breathtaking to the entire site of what many Italians say is Milan’s first proper platform for contemporary art.