2 February 2015
On at the Hangar Bicocca in Milan until May 10 is bau bau, Céline Condorelli’s first solo exhibition in Italy. In German, bau means not just “building” but also “under construction,” and the repetition of the word conjures up the idea of a building site. Of course, for someone like Condorelli who has studied architecture, it is also a tribute to the celebrated modernist school, the Bauhaus, but for an Italian it is above all the onomatopoeic expression for the barking of a dog. The artist, in short, seems to be telling us in a playful way that the space of art is not cut off from the outside world: it is a place that is always changing, where something dynamic is going on. Like the breeze that blows from the fan hung in the entrance, the natural light filtered by a window opened in the heavy walls of the industrial shed, the spotlights that illuminate the works in turns, the dark and tortuous tracks of a tire on the floor and the penetrating smell of vulcanized rubber. The space of the exhibition is split by a curtain into a daytime zone and a nighttime zone, metaphors for the life cycle, and is strewn with objects like tables, chairs, ladders, drapes and puppets (in video). Condorelli calls them “support structures,” and they are the other side of living and communicating, the nonhuman one, without which there would be no sharing. For her each object bears witness to an individual or collective story characterized by injustice, crossings of the map or social journeys.
Céline Condorelli, bau bau
Hangar Bicocca
A cura di Andrea Lissoni
Milano
11 dicembre 2014 > 10 aprile 2015
Céline Condorelli, Nerofumo, 2014. Courtesy: Céline Condorelli, Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan. Photo: Agostino Osio.
Céline Condorelli, Nerofumo, 2014. Courtesy: Céline Condorelli, Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan. Photo: Agostino Osio.
Céline Condorelli, Support Structure (Red), 2012-2014. Courtesy: Céline Condorelli, Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan. Photo: Agostino Osio.
Céline Condorelli, bau bau, 2014. Veduta della mostra / Installation view. Courtesy: Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan. Photo: Agostino Osio.
Céline Condorelli, bau bau, 2014. Veduta della mostra / Installation view. Courtesy: Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan. Photo: Agostino Osio.
Céline Condorelli, Structure for Listening, 2012. Courtesy: Céline Condorelli, Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan. Photo: Agostino Osio.
Céline Condorelli, bau bau, 2014. Veduta della mostra / Installation view. Courtesy: Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan. Photo: Agostino Osio.
Céline Condorelli, The Weird Charismatic Power That Capitalism Has For Teenagers (to Johan Hartle), 2014. Courtesy: Céline Condorelli, Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan. Photo: Agostino Osio.
Céline Condorelli, Siamo venuti per dire di No, 2013. Courtesy: Céline Condorelli, Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan. Photo: Agostino Osio.
Céline Condorelli, Structure for Preparing the Piano, 2012. Courtesy: Céline Condorelli, Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan. Photo: Agostino Osio.
Céline Condorelli, À Bras Le Corps – with Philodendron (to Amalia Pica), 2014. Courtesy: Céline Condorelli, Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan. Photo: Agostino Osio.
Céline Condorelli, À Bras Le Corps – with Philodendron (to Amalia Pica), 2014. Courtesy: Céline Condorelli, Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan. Photo: Agostino Osio.
Céline Condorelli, The Double And The Half (to Avery Gordon), 2014. Courtesy: Céline Condorelli, Fondazione HangarBicocca, Milan. Photo: Agostino Osio.