Atlas in Fondazione Prada (Part III)...
12:14 p.m.
25/06/18 - Final installment of our tour around “Atlas” and we are already on the 8th floor. The height of the ceiling is considerable enough to house Damien Hirst's fish tanks. There are no visible explanations on the walls, just the tanks. In “Tears for Everybody’s Looking at you” (1997) we see two rubber ducks protected by an umbrella while it rains endlessly. Is this the result of the influence of Devonshire, where the artist lives, which inspires the use of farm animals in his installations? He indeed has a reputation for converting dry conceptual art into emotional sculptures with cows and calves in formol. These rubber ducks under the umbrella are a modern take on the contemporary still-life.
Tears for Everybody’s Looking at you, by Damien Hirst (1997)
Materials: glass, stainless steel, silicone, rubber, water, umbrella, decoy ducks, pump.
Towards the end of the room, a tank contains a scientist looking through a microscope. By 1994, year in which it was unveiled, it meant a real defiance to the art world.
A way of seeing, by Damien Hirst
Materials: glass, silicone, formica, chair, animatronic, microscope, boxes, lab materiales, etc.
The last floor begins with a playful installation by Carsten Höller (Belgium, 1961) who, with a PhD in Biology, bases his artworks in the latest researches in that field. These giant mushrooms that grow from the ceiling and turn around themselves makes as feel as in Alice's Wonderland. But as we circle them, we can not help but think about the psychedelic effect this poisonous variety can cause.
Upside down mushroom room, by
Materials: poliestirene, wood, paint
This very sensory exhibition could not be complete without a mystic artwork and thus we find “Blue Line”, by John Baldessari: a diagonal panel on which we see (on both sides) a black and white reproduction of “The Dead Christ in the Tomb”, by Hans Holbein the Younger (1521). The title of the piece refers to the blue line the artist painted on the panel. And if you think this painting has little to do with Contemporary Art, just look at the face and fingers in the hands, as they express anger and exasperation. In the following room, over the wall, a video camera projects what happened in the previous room, with a 60 seconds delay, so we discover ourselves watching the panel. It is strange to see ourselves simultaneously on both places. Thus Baldassari turns an ordinary moment into something completely different, forcing us to see ourselves as observers.
Blue Line, by
B&W photography and acrylic on panel, video projection.
What has “Atlas” left us? First, a reflection on the influence of architecture in exhibition spaces: these venues blend with the city landscape, reinforcing the concept of art as part of our daily life. Second, a reflection on the artworks in themselves and the feelings they cause: today the average visitor seeks a sensory impact rather than an analysis on what the artist can do. Atlas' main attraction is the experience of visiting an exhibition in which the entire tower is one space divided for the individual show of iconic Modern and Contemporary artists.
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