Allora & Calzadilla
Fault Lines
22 October–24 November 2013
Opening: Tuesday 22 October, 6:30pm
Press preview: Tuesday 22 October, 11:30am;
to RSVP, email press [at] fondazionenicolatrussardi.com
Palazzo Cusani
Via Brera 15, Milan
Hours: Daily10am–8pm;
Free admission
www.fondazionenicolatrussardi.com
Fault Lines is the first major solo exhibition in Italy by Allora & Calzadilla. The Fondazione Nicola Trussardi has invited this American artistic duo to conceive an ambitious new project for Palazzo Cusani, an extraordinary gem of architecture on Via Brera, in the heart of Milan, which for over four centuries has been the scene of political and social events that are deeply intertwined with the history of Italy. Palazzo Cusani now houses the headquarters of the Army Command for Lombardy and the Army Officers’ Club, and an official seat of the NATO Rapid Deployable Corps.
Allora & Calzadilla have developed an experimental body of work, in which different languages and disciplines are combined to explore the psychological, political, and social geography of contemporary globalized culture. Fault Lines, the title for their exhibition with the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, refers to the rifts in the earth that form between two shifting masses of rock; unstable fissures that conceal a deep fragility, and could reach the breaking point at any moment. In Allora and Calzadilla’s work, these Fault Lines are taken as points of departure for an exploration of physical and symbolic borders and junctures.
In the magnificent spaces of Palazzo Cusani—open for the first time to the world of contemporary art—Allora & Calzadilla are presenting an impressive selection of recent work, most of it never before shown in Italy, as well as new pieces created specifically for the exhibition. From the majestic Radetzky Hall—a stuccoed ballroom—to the Hall of Allegories—with its frescos depicting scenes from Greek mythology—visitors encounter a succession of sculptures, performances, and videos that engage with the history of the site while referring to current events and areas of contention.
Allora & Calzadilla transform the sumptuous Baroque rooms of the Palazzo into a music box peopled by trumpet players turning steps into musical scales, pianists trapped inside their instruments, sopranos and tenors enveloped in tunnel-like passageways, and marching dancers acting as doors, creating an experience in which sound and music become metaphors for the dynamics of power, resistance, and seduction. In Stop, Repair, Prepare, for instance, the artists have modified a grand piano by carving a circular hole in it; once an hour, a pianist standing in the void, behind the keyboard, attempts to play the fourth movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Sediments, Sentiments (Figures of Speech) is an imposing polyurethane and plaster sculpture inside which opera singers perform passages from the most significant speeches of the twentieth century. At the heart of the show is a new film trilogy—composed of the films Raptor’s Rapture, Apotomē, and 3—in which the artists explore the history of music, and specifically, its place in human evolution, examining the affective and transformative power of sound.
With Fault Lines, the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi continues the mission that has led it to explore Milan since 2003, rediscovering forgotten places and hidden treasures in the heart of the city and bringing them back to life through contemporary art. After major solo shows by Darren Almond, Pawel Althamer, John Bock, Maurizio Cattelan, Martin Creed, Tacita Dean, Michael Elmgreen & Ingar Dragset, Urs Fischer, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Cyprien Gaillard, Paul McCarthy, Paola Pivi, Anri Sala, Tino Sehgal, and Pipilotti Rist, the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi is now proud to present this new large-scale project by Allora & Calzadilla, with which it is celebrating its tenth year of nomadic activity.
For more information, please contact:
Lara Facco
Fondazione Nicola Trussardi Press Office
Piazza della Scala, 5 – 20121 Milan
T +39 02 8068821 / F +39 02 80688281 / M +39 338 6075380
lf [at] fondazionenicolatrussardi.com / press [at] fondazionenicolatrussardi.com
www.fondazionenicolatrussardi.com
