Some of us may be on holiday at the moment, or leaving soon for a break. Others may instead already be busy planning their trips for the fashion weeks in September. If you are among the latter and you may be heading to Milan, take a note of the exhibitions you may want to visit in between runway shows, and include in your list Nari Ward's "Gilded Darkness" at the Centro Balneare Romano - Milanosport (Via Ampère 20; from 12th September to 16th October).
The event, organized by the Nicola Trussardi Foundation and curated by its artistic director Massimiliano Gioni, will extend in the outdoor and indoor spaces of the Centro, and will feature some of Ward's most renowned installations and environmental interventions alongside new works created specifically for the occasion.
Born in St. Andrew, Jamaica, in 1963, at a young age Ward moved with his family to New York where he studied art. In the '90s Ward settled in Harlem and here he was inspired by the abandoned objects in his neighborhood - among the others, children's strollers, shopping carts, umbrellas, shoelaces, carpets, plastic bags and mats, soda bottles and caps, screws, and ropes.
Detached from the places where they were found and recontextualized, the objects assumed new meanings in his installations and environmental interventions (this definition may be used to describe the objects in the various designated spaces, but may also hint at the fact that Ward's art is sustainable since it usually features recycled materials).
Some of the items Ward found were used for monumental installations such as "Amazing Grace". Produced during his residency in 1993 at the Studio Museum in Harlem, "Amazing Grace" featured more than three hundred abandoned strollers, reconfigured in the form of a ship's hull. The installation was accompanied by the voice of gospel singer and African American activist Mahalia Jackson, singing "Amazing Grace".
This work now assumes a new meaning: it reminds us of people fleeing from their countries for different reasons and in particular evokes images of strollers left at stations on the Ukrainian border after refugees fled from the Russian invasion. "Amazing Grace" will return at the Romano Pool where it will occupy the old locker rooms.
Other installations (Ward's shoelaces series forming words on the walls are particularly fascinating) will analyse the dialogue between cultures, identities at the crossroads between different languages and traditions, and the function of monuments at a time marked by the continual revision of history and the numerous collapses and repeated crises defining these past few years.
The key installation at this event is a site specific intervention, "Emergence Pool" that, occupying the 4,000 square meter pool, will transform it into a gigantic golden expanse made up of thousands of floating thermal blankets.
The location for this exhibition is also linked to other themes analysed by Ward: designed by architect Luigi Secchi during the Fascist period, inaugurated in 1929, and dedicated to the memory of the young Olympic champion Guido Romano, who died at the front during World War I, the pool celebrates the ideals of victory and greatness, war and athleticism, nationalism and imperialism.
These themes will also be explored in Ward's installation featuring a crane with a huge white flag, hinting at nationalism, violence, and defeat. This installation will be accompanied by sounds and musical compositions made in collaboration with various groups and individuals living in Milan to remind visitors of the multiplicity of cultures and languages inhabiting the Italian capital of fashion.
Through his works, instead, Ward leaves behind grand ideals of victory and nationalism and invites visitors to consider stories of everyday heroism, episodes of collective joy, as well as images of defeat and downfall.
In a way, this event it perfectly timed: Italy will hold early political elections on 25th September after a crisis in the government pushed Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi to resign. At the moment, far-right parties lead the Italian polls and surveys, and Ward's interventions, calling for unity, social justice and solidarity and contrasting with the architecture and the values imbued in it, could be the perfect antidote to the rise of a national-conservative right-wing front.
Image credits for this post
1. - 2. Nari Ward, Amazing Grace, 1993. Exhibition views of "Nari Ward: We the People", 2019. New Museum, New York. Photo Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio
3. Nari Ward, Radiant Opacity, 2022. Exhibition views, Galleria Continua / Les Moulins. Courtesy GALLERIA CONTINUA. Photo Oak Taylor - Smith
4. Nari Ward, Canned Smiles, 2013. Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul and London
5. - 6. Exhibition views of "Nari Ward: We the People", 2019. New Museum, New York. Photo Maris Hutchinson / EPW Studio
7. Nari Ward portrait, 2016. Courtesy Pérez Art Museum Miami. Photo World Red Eye
Comments