maurizio cattelan: mise-en-scene milan

maurizio cattelan: mise-en-scene milan. he chooses the most ancient tree to transform this collective hallucination in a realistic representation ...........

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maurizio cattelan

mise-en-scene milan
installation
piazza 24 maggio, milan, italy
from may 5 to june 6, 2004

curated by massimiliano gioni,
artistic director of the fondation nicola trussardi
http://www.fondazionenicolatrussardi.com

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after a year from the presentation of the exhibition
SHORT CUT, by the artists michael elmgreen &
ingar dragset, and after IF HAD YOU, the exhibition of
darren almond, the trussardi foundation introduces
a new work of maurizio cattelan, conceived for one
of the historic places of the city of milan.

commissioned from the foundation and produced
by the artist for the milanese public square
‘XXIV maggio’, in one of the most vital zones in milan,
the installation will be under the eyes of all citizens,
passing torists and art experts for more than a month.
in this monumental setting at the crossroads of history,
referencing napoleon's campaigns and world wars I
and II, maurizio cattelan stages the epilogue of a
macabre fairy tale, an ancient popular ritual and a
new urban legend.

cattelan chooses the most ancient tree of the city
to transform this collective hallucination in a realistic
representation. as for magic, like in a medieval tale,
three children hang on a tree and watch the truth
with their eyes wide open.

the characters and personas that inhabit maurizio
cattelan's world make ghostly appearances in a
personal theatre of the absurd. he sees childhood
as a territory of freedom and fantasy and as a time
of violence and terror. the 3 boys within this mortal
setting are largely symbolic figures, manipulated
for their qualities of weakness and innocence,
most important in their ‘absence’ as something lost,
something injured, or something sacrificed.

it is a ‘mise-en-scene’ of a popular fable that captures
and at the same time removes the tensions and
the horrors of our present. maurizio cattelan presents
an image of hope, implying that ultimately we have the
capacity to escape our destiny, our roots, our obsessions
and nightmares.

cattelan’s works are filled of both humour and tragedy
... and scandals.
‘scandals are just incidents, side effects. I work with
images trying to reflect reality’s schizophrenia:
who tries to impose its own interpretation to my work
as the only possible makes the scandal.’ he says.

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but what about the people on the street?
many were just curious, asking about the meaning
of the artwork.
an old lady interpreted the installation as:
the sentence of death of the handicraft -
3 artisans ( ... a shoemaker, a carpenter, a labourer)
killed by the society.
many laughed at her.
people forget that everyone may interpret
an artwork in their own way.
an artwork cannot have set meanings because
everyone has different experiences with things.

of course there were also complaints against it.
most people regarded the installation as the work
of a psychotic or deranged artist.
many discussed angrily, and were shocked...
and others, because ‘people-are-strange’,
were physically pushing each other.
two policemen spent the night there.
how long will the installation actually last?

‘we expected critics, and we consider them
constructive if they are based on civil arguments,
a strumental political debate does not interest us.
however there is a lot more violence in television.’
thus beatrice trussardi, president of the foundation
nichola trussardi, comments the controversies.

‘it is important that we consider such issues
as an artistic expression. art as a vital form of
expression. and of course it provokes discordant
opinions. however free expression is the foundation
of our society' says gabriele albertini, major of milan.

(editor’s note:
shortly after this event, by the late afternoon of the
following day, a 42-year old man, armed with a
ladder and a hand saw, climbed up on that tree and
cut off two of the three puppet in the exact likeness
of children. the activist fell down while protesting.
firefighters and ambulance came a few minutes later..
the injured individual was transported to the hospital.)

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