See Turin and Die
Vices and obsessions depict Turin in the context of the exhibition One Torino: Shit and Die, curated by artist Maurizio Cattelan together with Myriam Ben Salah and Marta Papini. This initiative was meant to connect the town’s heart to the official fair venue during Artissima, the international contemporary art fair of Turin. Quoting Bruce Nauman’s One Hundred Live and Die, which tells of one hundred ways to live and die, the curators have chosen to play the role of the master of ceremonies in the 18th century Palazzo Cavour: “we established no hierarchy between life events and idle gossip; let’s say that we opted for an archaeology of chimeras.”
From the moment one enters the palazzo, a particular fetishist fascination becomes clear, in line with Cattelan’s well-known desecrating taste. The walls of the staircase are completely covered by forty thousands copies of one-dollar bills: the number one par excellence. This first work opens up a controversy: it refers to a case of plagiarism raised by Turin-based artist Gianni Colosimo. He once sued the Guggenheim of New York when he discovered a work similar to his. In the Guggenheim Hans Peter Feldman did something similar in 2011, after winning the Hugo Boss Prize he covered the walls with a hundred thousand dollar notes. In the current Turin version Eric Doeringer has made a third, smaller and authorised copy of this debated artwork, entitled The Hug.
Being embraced by conflicting feelings is confirmed when reading the titles given to the sections of the exhibition: The Assembly Line of Dreams, Aldologica (homage to Aldo Mondino), Double Trouble, In Event of Moon Disaster, Bite the Dust, Fetish, Dead Man Working. Each of these parts look like autonomous worlds, where the curatorial gesture shows itself through multi-coloured and visually fragmented interventions. Here, local and international artists are matched in a mutual and sometimes disruptive dialogue.
In the The Assembly Line of Dreams we find Guy-Ben-Ner’s video Soundtrack, where electronic devices declare a terroristic attack to a family, installed among pieces of furniture from an Olivetti housing unit, designed by architects Gabetti and Isola in the seventies. A totally different aesthetics inhabits Aldologica, with the bright wooden tapestries Tappeti Stesi by Aldo Mondino, and Double Trouble, where the Polaroid nudes by Carlo Mollino encounter the feminist perspective of Lynda Benglis and Natalia LL, among others. In Event of Moon Disaster offers a series of famous Turin figures portraits, done by well-known artists.
Turin’s inheritance is approached through historical and contemporary figures, by deconstructing official narratives. One example comes from the Count of Cavour, who gave the name to the venue’s building and was among the funders of the Republic of Italy in 1861. Allegedly he was affected by an undeclared faeces-related sexual passion, which is revealed by the curators through another ambient installation: a re-styling of Count Cavour’s study room in the form of a shiny plastic film that covers all the surfaces of the room.
As in a marvellous walk, one encounters pieces like a real skeleton, belonging to Professor Giacomini, Lutz Bacher’s naughty Marilyn Monroe appearing in Jokes (1987-1988), Marilyn, some original prison jars with inscriptions from the 19th century or the kissing fans of Roman Signer’s Installation with 2 fans. The last work, by Martin Creed, serves as a memento mori: thirty-nine metronomes each one beating at a different speed, surrounding a smashed car.
Is human awareness of caducity translated into our envy towards things? The essay of Italian philosopher Maurizio Ferrari entitled Salvation in Things, which is featured in the publication accompanying the exhibition, states that ‘collecting is a game played against death’. For one thing, there is no void at Palazzo Cavour, as literally all rooms are filled with accumulated and collected objects, imbued with illusions and fears. Teasing death is definitely a recurrent ploy in Cattelan’s oeuvre. Turin, the city associated with occultism, black magic, and a glorious industrial past, has become a must-see destination for controversies and secrets.
Shit and Die, One Torino Artissima
5 November 2014 – 11 January 2015
Emma I. Panza
