Photograph
- Mattia Balsamini
- Courtesy
Fondazione Prada
Not Only Biennale –
Exhibition
Ca Corner della Regina – Fondazione Prada
Machines a Penser – Preview Party
Ca Corner della Regina – Fondazione Prada
Machines a Penser – Preview Party
At the
Fondazione Prada the exhibition Machines a Penser, curated by Dieter
Roelstraete, until November 25, explores the correlation between conditions of
exile, escape and retreat and physical or mental places which favor reflection,
thought and intellectual production. Machines a Penser focuses on three major philosophers of the 20th
century: Theodor W. Adorno (1903-1969), Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) and Ludwig
Wittgenstein (1889-1951). The latter two shared a life-long need for
intellectual isolation: Heidegger spent long periods of his life in a secluded
hut in the village of Todtnauberg in the Black Forest in Germany, whilst
Wittgenstein retreated on several occasions to a small mountain cabin situated
in a fjord in Skjolden, Norway. Adorno, on the other hand, was forced into
exile from his native Germany during by the Nazi regime, first to Oxford and
then to Los Angeles, where he wrote Minima Moralia, a collection of
aphorisms that also reflects on the fate of forced emigration. These
reflections inspired the installation conceived by the Scottish artist and poet
Ian Hamilton Finlay in 1987 titled Adorno’s Hut, a centerpiece of
the exhibition alongside architectural reconstructions of the actual huts of
Heidegger and Wittgenstein.
“…these were the places where our protagonists
hatched out their deepest thoughts. Isolation, whether chosen or imposed,
appears to have inspired them decisively—and over the years their huts have
proven to be an inexhaustible source of inspiration in turn for generations of
artists, attracted to the fantasy of withdrawal as articulated in its most
elemental architectural form.”
Dieter Roelstraete
curator
Dieter Roelstraete
curator
Adorno’s
exile is recalled through a large-scale reproduction of a photograph by Patrick
Lakey showcasing the interior of Villa Aurora in Los Angeles. The fate of
forced retreat is explored through the work of artists such as Susan Philipsz;
Ewan Telford; Patrick Lakey; Anselm Keifer, Alexander Kluge.
The exhibition takes place on the ground floor and
on the first floor of the 18th century palazzo, creating an immersive journey
that deepens our understanding of these three philosophers and the relationship
between philosophy, art and architecture.
Patrick Lakey -
Photographs
Cesare Cunaccia
Cecilia Matteucci
Roberto De Feo
Anselm Keifer – Hirnhauslein (fur Alexander) - 2017
Anselm Keifer – Hirnhauslein (fur Alexander) - 2017
Machines a Penser - Martin Heidegger
Martin
Heidegger’s Black Forest cabin is evoked through a remake that contains, among
other works, a series of personal photographs by the photo-journalist Digne
Meller-Marcovicz and a set of ceramic pieces by Jan Bontjes van Beek.
Contemporary work by artists such as Giulio Paolini, Sophie Nys, Inigo
Manglano-Ovalle and Paolo Chiasera chart the long shadow cast by Heidegger’s
thought across philosophies of building, dwelling and belonging.
Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran
Marie-Rose Kahane and Aud Cuniberti
Donata Grimani and Caterina
Napoleone
Photograph
- Mattia Balsamini
- Courtesy
Fondazione Prada
Machines a Penser - Ludwig
Wittgenstein
Inside
the reconstruction of Ludwig Wittgenstein’s small house in Skjolden, Norway,
the viewer encounters Head of a Girl (1925-1928), the only artwork known to
have been made by the Austro-British philosopher, shown here alongside his
personal belongings. Wittgenstein’s self-imposed exile and lifelong quest for
philosophical peace of mind form the subject of artworks created by a Norwegian
artist collective comprised of Sebastian Makonnen Kjolaas, Marianne Bredesen
and Siri Hjorth; Jeremy Millar; and Guy Moreton. A newly commissioned work by
Leonor Antunes and a sculpture by Mark Manders are also featured in the
exhibition.
Photograph
- Mattia Balsamini
- Courtesy
Fondazione Prada
Marianne Bredesen,
Sebastian Makonnen Kjolaas and Siri Hjorth
Preliminary Model of the Wittgenstein Monument 1:23 - 2018
Preliminary Model of the Wittgenstein Monument 1:23 - 2018
Marianne Bredesen,
Sebastian Makonnen Kjolaas and Siri Hjorth
Giovanni and Servane Giol
with Isabella Capace Galeota
Jerome Zieseniss and Matteo Corvino
Fabio Moretti, Roberta
Rossi, Massimo Luca Barbero and Cinzia Giol
Photograph
- Mattia Balsamini
- Courtesy
Fondazione Prada
Mark Manders – A Place
Where My Thoughts Are Frozen Together - 2001
Lorcan O’Neill and Luca Cipelletti
Gaby Wagner
Jean-Marie
Degueldre and Alessandro Palwer
Studiolo – Northern Italy –
c. 1480
Vue de Differentes
Habitations de J.J. Rousseau – c. 1810
Ian Hamilton Finlay –
Adorno’s Hut – 1986-87
Goshka Macuga - Heidegger – Adorno – Wittgenstein – 2018
Goshka Macuga designed three sculptures for the exhibition depicting the heads of the three philosophers, Mark Riley presents three dioramas and Gerhard Richter exhibits overpainted photographs of Engadin mountainscapes and sculpture Kugel III, evoking Friedrich Nietzsche’s thinking quarters in Sils-Maria where Thus Spoke Zarathustra was conceived.
Alessandra Zoppi and
Elvire Mazzucco
Cristina Beltrami and Luca
Bombassei
Astrid Welter and Giuseppe
Barbieri
Photograph
- Mattia Balsamini
- Courtesy
Fondazione Prada
Inigo Manglano-Ovalle –
Schwarzwald – 2015
Giulio Paolini – L’Arte e Lo Spazio. Quattro Illustrazioni Per Martin Heidegger - 1983
Giulio Paolini – L’Arte e Lo Spazio. Quattro Illustrazioni Per Martin Heidegger - 1983
Machines a Penser
The
exhibition also includes a historical section focusing on Church, father Saint
Jerome (347-419), famous for leading the life of an anchorite in the Syrian
desert while translating the Bible into Latin. Renaissance paintings and prints
dedicated to the iconography of the saint are exhibited alongside a Renaissance
studiolo containing, among other items, first editions of Heidegger and
Wittgenstein’s writings, its outer walls clad in a site-specific installation
by the Scottish artist-poet Alec Finlay titled Hutopia (2018), featured above.
Bartolomeo Montagna –
Saint Jerome in Bethlehem – 1505-10
The Grand Canal