Utopia For Sale?

At MAXXI the exhibition “Utopia for Sale? A tribute to Allan Sekula” proposes a reflection on globalization, on the Utopias of the past and those of today.

The exhibiton in Rome at MAXXI “Utopia for sale?” is a tribute to the artist Allan Sekula, who passed away a few months ago.

On show, along with Sekula’s works, are videos and installations by Noël Burch, Cao Fei, Adelita Husni-Bey, Li Liao, Amie Siegel; photographs of industrial sites and landscapes from the MAXXI Arte and MAXXI Architettura collections (such as the Hannover blast furnaces by Bernd & Hilla Becher, the port and the shipyards of Genoa by Gianni Berengo Gardin, the formere Italsider works and Bagnoli in the Neapolitan photos of Libero De Cunzo), which also provide the drawings and images of the Cartiere Burgo paper mill in Mantova designed by Pier Luigi Nervi.

The works on show reflect on the theme of globalization and the circulation of ideas, products and people in an era of whirling social, cultural and economic changes in which the Utopia of monetary power is replacing the Utopia of social good.

The exhibition revolves around two works by Allan Sekula, photographer, filmmaker and artist who, with critical realism, explored the contemporary. The photographic work Fish Story (1989-95) investigates the key role of the ocean as a space of globalization, thinking that is also explored in the documentary film The Forgotten Space (2010) made with Noël Burch: at the centre is a mysterious container and its workers, the dark side of capitalism, in waters on which 90% of the world’s consumer goods are transported.

The rapid cultural, social and economic changes that are revolutionising the world, individuals and their role in the social system, the Utopias of the past “distorted” by the consumer society of today, but also the micro-utopias, strategies of resistance, new dreams and Utopias are at the centre of the research of the artists in this exhibition, a vision of contemporary society from diverse points of view and diverse parts of the world.

Amie Siegel, Provenance, 2013

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Amie Siegel, Provenance, 2013

Allan Sekula, Fish Story, 1989-95

The Forgotten Space

Allan Sekula, Noël Burch The Forgotten Space, 2010

from February 15 until May 2, 2014
Utopia For Sale? A tribute to Allan Sekula
curated by Hou Hanru and Monia Trombetta
MAXXI - Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo
via Guido Reni 4A, Roma

Utopia For Sale?

At MAXXI the exhibition “Utopia for Sale? A tribute to Allan Sekula” proposes a reflection on globalization, on the Utopias of the past and those of today.

A005_C041_10074P

The Forgotten Space

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