Alex Da Corte (1980) transforms objects from popular culture into vivid and emotionally complex works for the viewer who experiences them. The piece we are analyzing today recalls the incident at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York in 1991. That afternoon, a huge helium-filled balloon in the shape of Kermit the Frog became entangled in a tree branch, burst open, and fell half-deflated along Fifth Avenue, in front of thousands of spectators. As the parade went on, Kermit's fall drastically affected the atmosphere of the celebration.

With this work, located in the center of Place Vendôme in Paris during this year's Art Basel week, Da Corte chooses to present his Kermit suspended in the endless moment of defeat. Poised between humor and melancholy or despair, the inflatable sculpture embodies the artist's interest in showing us how cultural icons absorb and reveal our collective anxieties, but it is particularly a reflection on the fall and resilience of the iconic figure.

Tread, by Richard Deacon

Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, Marais, Paris

 General view of the exhibition 

Richard Deacon New Works

Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, Marais, Paris

The sculptures dialogue with each other in the middle of a white landscape and, according to the sign, it is the first time that the artist presents his artworks outdoors in Switzerland. Despite the rigidity of the material, it is possible to notice some movement in Her, as if moving forward over Cape Silver. In the latter Kentridge uses the figure of a coffee pot with a certain anthropomorphic aspect.

The expression in both pieces is evident: it seems that they are conversing with each other, making room for themselves in the space that surrounds them.

Strangers Clay: Ceramics in Contemporary Art was an exhibition organized by Hayward Gallery, in London, presenting a wide group of contemporary artists who use ceramics in their works.

Lindsey Mendick (UK, 1987) unleashed her fury presenting a mini-apartment invaded by unpleasant specimens. The gallery sign tells us that the artist presents a home as if it were a battlefield, with a multitude of ceramic elements divided into small scenes full of drama and conflict: each one of them exudes humor. This tragicomic installation is amazingly detailed and meticulous: an applause for Mendick.

David Zink Yi (Peru, 1973) presents the most photographed work in the show. No wonder: it is a giant squid, lying on the floor of the top floor of the gallery. The ceramic piece, reproduced down to the last detail, rests on its own ink. It looks so very real, as if it had just come out of the water, because the artist painstakingly glazed the body of the mollusk. We cannot help but wonder if it exists like this in nature or if it is a mythological or extinct animal.

08/08/22 - A surprise can pop up on any street in the world and for those of us who make a pilgrimage for art a lifestyle, many works are discovered on foot. Precisely, on a walk around Milan, we came across a site-specific installation in the form of a nest in front of a gallery. The artist is Tadashi Kawamata (Japan, 1953) and at first glance we recognize the respect for nature that the sculpture inspires. The material looks like recycled, and the aesthetic is truly that of a nest, a natural structure that we see very little or almost nothing in densely populated cities.

This superstructure protrudes from the building until it almost connects with those walking on the sidewalk. It is a wake-up call: nature is in danger! Although it depends on our mood we have at the time we find this wonderful Nest, we can come to see in it a place to take shelter. Because that is its function, to be a refuge for the pigeons from predators. In any case, the structure carries a positive vision, a feeling of shelter and well-being... And to think that it is so simple to make that it can be built by a bird. 

Nests in Milan, de Tadashi Kawamata