To celebrate the advent of the third millennium, Credito Valtellinese Gallery in Milan (former Stelline Refectory) is hosting works by some European contemporary artists. Since long, the Gallery has been linked to the theme of the Last Supper, not only because it is located near the Basilica of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Corso Magenta, where the famous fresco by Leonardo is kept, but also because the first exhibition it hosted was a major Andy Warhol exhibition on the Last Supper. Some of the exhibitions expected for 2000 will celebrate the same subject.
The calendar for the year, prepared in association with the A.I.C.E.M. - which associates six European cultural centres based in Milan (i.e. Centre Culturel Français, Istituto Austriaco di Cultura, British Council, Goethe Institut, Instituto Cervantes and Centro Culturale Svizzero) - includes exhibitions of three couples of artists of different age and style coming from the participating countries.
The exhibitions will be hosted at the Centre Culturel Français in Corso Magenta, 63 as well.
Late in March, the Gallery already hosted Martial Raysse (France) and Hermann Nitsch (Austria). In June, Damien Hirst (Great Britain) and a Spanish art collection belonging to the period 1950-1970 of the Foundation La Caixa (including works by Tàpies, Saura, Chillida and more). Finally, in November, the Gallery is hosting Daniel Spoerri (Switzerland) and Hanne Darboven (Germany).
Exhibitions were realised in association with the fashion house Jil Sander, Julius Baer banking group and under the patronage of the department for the Arts of the Province of Milan.
DANIEL SPOERRI
The Last Supper and Flea Market genetic chain
Daniel Spoerri belongs to the generation of artists who, since the '60s, have been reformulating the arts with a new style, which is linked to situations and events. Their production is inspired by objects, which they have been transforming in order to realise works that can sometimes refer back to the Surrealism (e.g. works by Spoerri). Spoerri's language is linked to the New Realism. His production includes works such as the famous collages. Plastic reproductions of meals he had everyday. Spoerri depicts his life experiences: a room, a meal…just like an archaeologist. He collects traces of life, objects, symbols of a moment. Tangible marks left by our cultural experience.
Credito Valtellinese Group Gallery is hosting works that were never exhibited before. Dominique Stella and Gino Di Maggio are presenting the exhibition. In fact, Spoerri realised a frieze-shaped work that is 60 metres long and is made up of 25 panels placed next to each other. Each panel is 2.5 metres long and includes objects that the artist found in the last twenty years wandering about at Paris "Marché au Puces". Each panel approaches a particular subject. The one that recurs most frequently is the human body. In this case, Spoerri collects dummy hands, heads and arms, wigs, showing his skill at inventing and recycling things. From banality to originality. Spoerri chooses, assemblies and mixes objects in order to tell a story that he alone knows. Thinking about creating his works takes a long time while realising them is an immediate process. The panel with the Last Supper is not included in the frieze. It is 7.5 metres long and exactly reproduces the table in the fresco painted by Leonardo Da Vinci, which is kept in Santa Maria Delle Grazie. There are plates, glasses, jugs and bread. But here everything's real and Spoerri spectacularly shows his great talent
HANNE DARBOVEN
Works 1980 - 1993
The exhibition organised by Stuttgart Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (Foreign contacts Institute) under Tilamn Osterwold's supervision presents works by Hanne Darboven, a conceptual artist who studied in Hamburg in the '60s and worked for a long time in New York. She became one of the most important exponents of the Minimal Art and exhibited her works at Leo Castelli's famous art gallery. However, her works were rarely exhibited in Italy, though they were hosted at the Venice Biennale in 1982. Hanne Darboven was born in Munich in 1941. She moved to New York in 1966 and met artists such as Sol Lewitt and Carl Andre. At the beginning of her career she devoted herself to drawings and graphic arts. Back to Germany in 1969, she settled in Hamburg, where she still lives, and kept on working. Along with drawings she also copied lists of dates into her works. In 1978, she began using photographs and various sorts of materials. Starting from the '80s she copies combinations of numbers into scores. Basically her art consists of series of numbers and figures she used to write. To her, numbers are like words, which mean nothing but themselves and are used to make abstractions concrete. Figures are used to show the synchronised passing of time. Bucherei: Ein Jahrundert (1971-75) consists of 365 binders with the transcription of all days of each month of our century. She starts from basic additions of units (1 to 9). Her starting point is always a date, which refers to the idea of time we have experienced. Starting from dates, she develops a series of numeric relations. Year 1968 can be the sum of the figures it is made up of. The date 1/1/1968 becomes 1+1+1+9+6+8=26 and so on until 12/31/1968
Pictures of the places where she had been working are often added - as sociological notes - to the works themselves, so that she can make a connection between abstraction and experience.
The exhibition, which has been mounted inside the Exhibition Hall at the Centre Culturel Français, focuses on the most important stages of her career during the last ten years.
The exhibition presents a wide range of works on paper, two musical objects and four musical works
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