FONDAZIONE PRADA: THE EXHIBITIONS BY THEASTER GATES AND NÁSTIO MOSQUITO

Fondazione Prada is presenting the exhibitions “True Value” and “T.T.T.-Template Temples of Tenacity” from 7 July to 25 September 2016 by Theaster Gates and Nástio Mosquito respectively. Conceived by Elvira Dyangani Ose as independent projects, the two exhibitions include installations, site-specific works and projections, as well as collective experiences and musical events that actively involve the public.

“True Value” brings together a selection of existing works and new commissions in two different spaces at Fondazione Prada. The Cisterna features works in which the artist explores habitual, everyday things, immersed in the most evocative Black aesthetics. Gates operates on the conviction that everyday objects convey a deep understanding, not only intrinsic to their material aspect, but reminiscent of the experiences in which they have been immersed. On the first floor of the Podium, Gates hosts True Value (2016) —the installation after which the exhibition is named—which presents his rendition of an abandoned hardware store.True Value gathers materials, objects and tools removed from their original context and relocated in an art environment,deploying a framework to formulate a poetic and pragmatic space around objects of trade and human relationships those economic and labour exchanges create. The exhibition is a further opportunity to explore certain nearby cultural and commercial entities, observing local stories, socio-political patterns, and economically and culturally under-explored communities in the hope of setting in motion a new cartography through which to visit and engage an overlooked Milan. Prompting a series of exchanges that will take place in the exhibition space by means of public debates and readings, and community gathering. 

“T.T.T.-Template Temples of Tenacity” features three entirely new works by Mosquito and take place on the ground floor of the Podium, the Cinema and the outside spaces of Fondazione Prada. The project comprises three distinctive elements for which Mosquito has collaborated with a group of international artists.WEorNOT (Nastivicious’ Temple #1) (2016) is a site-specific installation featured on the ground floor of the Podium, conceived and realized by Nastivicious —the collective that Mosquito and Spanish artist Vic Pereiró founded in 2008— in collaboration with illustrator Ada Diez. Through this collaboration, the Podium turns into a contemporary temple, a platform for collective communion, in which the glass surface of the façades, covered by caricature-like illustrations, are transformed into large-scale stained glass windows. Mosquito has collaborated with musician Dijf Sanders, artist Chilala Moco, and choir The Golden Guys directed by Paola Milzani for the production of I Make Love To You. You Make Love To Me. Let Love Have Sex With The Both Of Us (Part 1 – The Gregorian Gospel Vomit) (2016), inspired by the Christian hymn Jesus Loves Me accredited to Anna B. Warner (1860). This performative experience will be held in the open courtyard of Fondazione Prada and will involve two choirs.

“T.T.T.-Template Temples of Tenacity” features three entirely new works by Mosquito and take place on the ground floor of the Podium, the Cinema and the outside spaces of Fondazione Prada. The project comprises three distinctive elements for which Mosquito has collaborated with a group of international artists.WEorNOT (Nastivicious’ Temple #1) (2016) is a site-specific installation featured on the ground floor of the Podium, conceived and realized by Nastivicious —the collective that Mosquito and Spanish artist Vic Pereiró founded in 2008— in collaboration with illustrator Ada Diez. Through this collaboration, the Podium turns into a contemporary temple, a platform for collective communion, in which the glass surface of the façades, covered by caricature-like illustrations, are transformed into large-scale stained glass windows. Mosquito has collaborated with musician Dijf Sanders, artist Chilala Moco, and choir The Golden Guys directed by Paola Milzani for the production of I Make Love To You. You Make Love To Me. Let Love Have Sex With The Both Of Us (Part 1 – The Gregorian Gospel Vomit) (2016), inspired by the Christian hymn Jesus Loves Me accredited to Anna B. Warner (1860). This performative experience will be held in the open courtyard of Fondazione Prada and will involve two choirs.

Mosquito will also present Synchronicity Is My Bitch: The Cinematic Experience (2016), to be hosted in September at Fondazione Prada. It is an audiovisual work assembling the artist’s latest album, Gatuno, Eimigrante & Pai de Família (2016), with a number of visual and filmic references extracted from a series of African films, documentaries and forms of vernacular television from the past twenty years. 

Source:
fondazioneprada.org