Goshka Macuga’s new show has opened at Fondazione Prada in Milan. Several works are exhibited atop ’Before the Beginning and After the End’, Macuga’s site-specific collaboration with Patrick Tresset, including John Andrea’s ’Arden Anderson and Norma Murphy’ (foreground), 1972
The Polish-born, London-based artist Goshka Macuga ripped into Milan like a firecracker last night, dazzling with the debut of an outstanding new show at the Fondazione Prada. The first maverick move of the night? Setting her human boyfriend next to her new, fascinatingly real-looking robot (impeccably modelled on said boyfriend) and snapping several photos of the ‘twins’ with her own iPhone.
The android was a perfect replica of his human counterpart, right down to a bushy black beard, curly hair, big brown eyes and immaculate jawline. ‘The only thing missing is the sparkle in his eye!’ Macuga remarked, while admiring the sheen of the robot’s skin.
Manufactured in Japan by a company called A-Lab, Macuga’s android is the nucleus of an intriguing show entitled ‘To the Son of Man Who Ate the Scroll’, dedicated, in part, to ‘humanity’s concern over the end of mankind’.
Sprawling through the vast exhibition space, it features installations, performances by humans and robots, as well as new works and curated pieces from the Fondazione Prada’s vast collection. The dense jumble defies easy description, even for the artist herself – ‘I really can’t put it into a few words,’ she said on the sidelines of the well-attended opening. ‘How much time do you have?’ – but a preoccupation with a post-human state seems to be the unifying theme.
Certainly, the show’s energy is remarkable. Some of the most electric moments were to be had in a trio of rooms featuring 73 cast bronze heads of historic heavyweights, from Einstein to Freud, which were speared onto shiny metal rods and linked together to look like giant molecular structures. In another room, machines drew illustrations on huge reams of white paper, like robotic hands. Elsewhere, at Fondazione Prada’s 15th-century studiolo, Macuga had stationed an actress, who recited excerpts from Charles Darwin’s Natural Selection in Esperanto.
How exciting to see that following all the buzz surrounding the Fondazione Prada’s glittering opening, shows like this prove it’s the real deal.
The exhibition includes an android replica of Macuga’s real-life boyfriend, right down to a bushy black beard, curly hair, and big brown eyes
’To the Son of Man Who Ate the Scroll’, by Goshka Macuga, 2015. Courtesy of the artist
A trio of rooms featured 73 cast bronze heads of historic heavyweights, from Einstein to Freud, speared onto shiny metal rods and linked together to look like giant molecular structures
’International Institute of Intellectual Co-operation, Configuration 6, Humanity’s Survival: Jared Diamond, Jean-François Lyotard, Francis Bacon, Friedrich Nietzsche, Paul Crutzen, Nick Bostrum, HP Lovecraft, Michel Foucault’, by Goshka Macuga, 2015
’Al la filo de la homo kiu manĝis la skribrulaĵon’, by Goshka Macuga, 2016. In Fondazione Prada’s 15th-century marquetry studiolo, an actress recites excerpts from Charles Darwin’s Natural Selection in Esperanto. Performer: Valeria Sara Costantin
A preoccupation with a post-human state seems to be the unifying theme. Pictured: ’Before the Beginning and After the End’, by Goshka Macuga and Patrick Tresset, 2016
Macuga’s works are surrounded by a selection of pieces from the Prada Collection. From left: ’"Negotiation sites" after Saburo Murakami’, by Goshka Macuga, 2016; ’Float’, by Robert Breer, 1970 (2000); ’The Golden Sphere’, by James Lee Byars, 1992; ’Extrusion’, by Thomas Heatherwick, 2009; ’Cubo’, by Alberto Giacometti, 1934; ’Concetto spaziale. Natura’, by Lucio Fontana, 1982; and ’Colpo di gong’, by Eliseo Mattiacci, 1993
INFORMATION
’Goshka Macuga: To the Son of Man Who Ate the Scroll’ runs until 19 June 2016. For more information, visit the Fondazione Prada website
Installation photography: Delfino Sisto Legnani Studio. Courtesy of Fondazione Prada
ADDRESS
Largo Isarco, 2
20139 Milan
Italy
-
The Park: step inside Jeremy King's mid-century dinerOne of several 2024 openings from restauranteur, Jeremy King, food critic Ben McCormack books in at The Park
-
Six brilliant bars for your 2025 celebrations, hot off the Wallpaper* travel deskWallpaper’s most-read bar reviews of the year can't be wrong: here’s inspiration for your festive and new year plans, from a swanky Las Vegas lounge to a minimalist London drinking den
-
Misfires and Monstrosities: three vehicular design disasters that show taste is in retreatFrom a multi-million dollar piece merchandise to a wretched Rolls-Royce, these are the low points of the year in transportation design
-
Louis Fratino leans into queer cultural history in ItalyLouis Fratino’s 'Satura', on view at the Centro Pecci in Italy, engages with queer history, Italian landscapes and the body itself
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been doing this weekA snowy Swiss Alpine sleepover, a design book fest in Milan, and a night with Steve Coogan in London – our editors' out-of-hours adventures this week
-
Pino Pascali’s brief and brilliant life celebrated at Fondazione PradaMilan’s Fondazione Prada honours Italian artist Pino Pascali, dedicating four of its expansive main show spaces to an exhibition of his work
-
‘I just don't like eggs!’: Andrea Fraser unpacks the art marketArtist Andrea Fraser’s retrospective ‘I just don't like eggs!’ at Fondazione Antonio dalle Nogare, Italy, explores what really makes the art market tick
-
Miranda July considers fantasy and performance at Fondazione Prada‘Miranda July: New Society’ at Fondazione Prada, Milan, charts 30 years of the artist's career
-
Juergen Teller’s ‘i need to live’ explores beauty and fragility at Triennale MilanoJuergen Teller’s ‘i need to live’ is on show at Triennale Milano, following its Paris debut, and spans shots of Yves Saint Laurent and Björk, as well as quirky self-portraits
-
Triennale Milano exhibition spotlights contemporary Italian artThe latest Triennale Milano exhibition, ‘Italian Painting Today’, is a showcase of artworks from the last three years
-
Walls, Windows and Blood: Catherine Opie in NaplesCatherine Opie's new exhibition ‘Walls, Windows and Blood’ is now on view at Thomas Dane Gallery, Naples
