Winter at MAXXI
From December 19, 2014
MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts
Via Guido Reni 4A
00196 Rome
Italy
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday11–19h,
Saturday 11–22h
T +06 399 67 350
info [at] fondazionemaxxi.it
www.fondazionemaxxi.it
At MAXXI Christmas time means deep reflections about the past conflicts, have been impacted both art and architecture, and a confrontation with new media artists, a generation is already rewriting a history page of XXI Century Arts.
A ten-meter-long minaret resting in the museum square, a gigantic reproduction of the mountain of Bugarach, a Buddhist prayer mill that brushes the museum ceiling, and the skeleton of a 30-meter-long serpent. Curated by Hou Hanru, the show HUANG YONG PING. BȂTON–SERPENT for the first time ever brings to Italy the work of the French artist of Chinese origin.
The title of the exhibition recalls a verse from the Exodus 7:10 in the Bible (“Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and his servants and it became a snake”), and refers to an ironic but also profoundly critical reflection concerning the relations and the tension between different cultures and religions, between history and modernity, a critical look at the philosophical and geopolitical origin of the contemporary conflicts that are shaking the world.
From the works by one of the most interesting artists on the international artistic scene, that draws a different “map of global civilization,” the visitors can keep on reflecting about the war trough ARCHITETTURA IN UNIFORME. DESIGNING AND BUILDING FOR THE SECOND WORLD WAR.
Saving the monuments from the bombings, testing new construction materials and techniques, inventing new forms of camouflage and propaganda, and designing gigantic structures for production and war tests, but also for concentration camps, modernizing both techniques and design methods: all this was asked of architects during the Second World War and is told by this exhibition, curated by Jean Louis Cohen, conceived and realized by the Canadian Centre for Architecture of Montreal, and adapted by the Cité de l’Architecture et du patrimoinein Paris and by MAXXI in Rome.
Over 40 video works and media installations tell the story of the Korean new Media Art scene up to the digital revolution and the cultural changes triggered by the Internet and the social networks. Organized by MMCA National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Korea and jointly produced with MAXXI, THE FUTURE IS NOW! presents works by Korean pioneers of new media art, video technology and video art projects, 70′s artists and the new artistic experiments.
The aim of the exhibition is reflecting on the “futures” because it may seem paradoxical, but if you dream of the future, you need to focus completely on today’s choices, decisions and actions. A show to understand and accept possibilities, meaning and limits of new media through a wide cultural context conducted in art world rather than focusing on new media art as a new expressive media.
