The Small Utopia. Ars Multiplicata
Fri, 6 July–Sun, 25 November 2012
Press preview: Thu, 5 July, 5–6pm
Ca’ Corner della Regina
Calle de Ca’ Corner
Santa Croce 2215, 30135 Venezia
Linea 1, San Stae stop
Hours: Daily except Tue, 10–6pm
Ticket office closes at 5:30pm
T +39 02 54670515 (Milan)
T +39 041 8109161 (Venice)
info [at] fondazioneprada.org
On Thursday, 5 July, the Fondazione Prada will open the exhibition The Small Utopia. Ars Multiplicata, curated by Germano Celant, at its Ca’ Corner della Regina space in Venice.
The title of the exhibition, The Small Utopia. Ars Multiplicata, is a reference to the dream, handed down from the historic avant-gardes to the artists of today, of achieving the democratic dissemination of art through a multiplication of the work of art as object, in order to favor a different perception and use of it from the aesthetic and social standpoint.
Covering a period of 75 years, from 1901 to 1975, the exhibition documents with over six hundred editions, including multiples and prototypes, the transformation of the idea of uniqueness in art and in its perception, through the multiplication not just of the objects themselves but also of the different means used for its distribution in the 20th century, from artist’s books to magazines and from experimental cinema to radio.
This small utopia, born at the beginning of the 20th century out of the attempts by the Russian constructivists and productivists to work with objects of everyday use, such as pottery, and the more individualistic aims of Marcel Duchamp, who reproduced his own works on a reduced scale and assembled them in his Boîte-en-valise, 1941 (three editions of which are presented here), put down deeper roots in the seventies, when the system of art began to spread, on the plane of information and communication, to all levels of society. An adventure in which all the principal movements became caught up, from Italian Futurism to the Bauhaus, from Neoplasticism to Dada and Surrealism, from Nouveau Réalisme to Op Art and Fluxus, culminating in the explosion in multiplication triggered by Pop Art, promoter of a genuine “supermarket” of the art object, translated into book, magazine, can, film, clothing, record, dish, furniture, toy, and many other forms.
Curated by Germano Celant.
Publication
The Small Utopia. Ars Multiplicata.
Milan, Progetto Prada Art edition
Press Office: T +39 02 54670202/0981 / press [at] fondazioneprada.org
*Image above:
Nikolai Suetin, Inkwell set, 1923. Porcelain, polychrome overglaze painting, 12.5 x 15.5 x 14.5 cm. Fondazione Prada, Small Utopia. Ars Multiplicata, Venezia. Courtesy V. Tsarenkov Collection, London. © Nikolai Suetin by SIAE 2012.
