Premio MAXXI 2014

Yuri Ancarani, Micol Assaël, Linda Fregni Nagler and Marinella Senatore, the 4 finalists in the Premio MAXXI 2014, invade all the spaces of the museum with their works.

Football from a new and revolutionary point of view, a physical space that becomes a mental one, the thrill of suspension in the void, a nomadic school where you can also learn to draw: these are the themes recounted by Yuri Ancarani, Micol Assaël, Linda Fregni Nagler e Marinella Senatore, the 4 finalists in the Premio MAXXI 2014.

For four months, from May 28 to September 21, 2014, the works of these artists will invade all the spaces of the museum involving not just the scenographic Galleria 5, but also some unusual places, such as Corner D, the piazza, the staircases, blending in with the flowing patterns of the space designed by Zaha Hadid.

The Premio MAXXI, which was founded to support the growth of the young generation of Italian artists, has now reached its third edition, won by Rossella Biscotti (2010) and Giorgio Andreotta Calò (2012) in the past two editions. This year the winner will be announced on June 13, when the jury meets to evaluate all the projects.

The exhibition, which is curated by Giulia Ferracci, moves about in MAXXI's spaces starting from the exterior with Untitled (2001 – 2014), the work that Micol Assaël has chosen to install in the Corner D part of the building opposite the museum’s main building. The work comprises a single environment with a bed, sanitaryware suspended and filled with water, and a generator of electricity, thereby suggesting a reflection on the theme of physical space and its connections with that of the unconscious.

Premio MAXXI 2014, vista dell'allestimento. Photo M. Monti — Premio MAXXI 2014, exhibition view. Photo Matteo Monti, courtesy Fondazione MAXXI

On MAXXI’s piazza and along its staircases the exhibition route continues with The School Of Narrative Dance, Roma (2014) by Marinella Senatore, a traveling school free of charge where anyone can teach or be a student, in which the public takes on a leading role in the process of assembling the work. The classroom built right on the piazza itself by the group of British architects ASSEMBLE, is conceived as an ideal set to host the lessons of a broad range of subjects and trades. The experiences of the lessons will then flow into a theater-dance performance directed by the choreographers of the Berlin group ESPZ. The exhibition project then continues along MAXXI’s staircases, where display cases contain the works that are the result of the lessons.

The exhibition ends in Galleria 5, where Linda Fregni Nagler, for Per comandare all'aria (2014), shows a group of three sculptures and a selection of fifteen photographs portraying figures about to jump, or precariously suspended. This theme is a reflection on time, on suspension, on the condition of absolute uncertainty that the image itself creates: it reveals nothing about what happened before or what happened after the moment the picture was taken. Per comandare all’aria is completed by three suspended sculptural elements, assembled starting from the photographs of models of aerostat propellers.

Premio Maxxi — Yuri Ancarani, *San Siro*, 2014. Still from video

Installed before the glazing of Galleria 5 is San Siro (2014), a film by Yuri Ancarani, a reading of the world of football as poetic as it is savage, with epic visions celebrating the legend of this sport, revealing its hidden side and turning the time it takes to play the game into a reflection on the spectacularization of the game itself. The film emphasizes the actions that go into preparing a football match: punters, technicians and directors, who are the unseen protagonists of the sporting spectacle, a “behind the scenes” set in San Siro Stadium, a symbol of Milan on a par with the Scala and the Duomo.

The exhibition is completed by a story area, a sort of wunderkammer, where a series of exhibited materials lay bare the inspirations and paths that led the artists to produce their works.

Based on these works the jury will choose the winner of this third edition: and the work chosen will become part of MAXXI’s permanent collection.

A monographic publication will be dedicated to the winning artist, including interviews and essays as well as an anthology of the most significant critical essays to have been written about him or her. The dual-language (Italian-English) publication will be distributed internationally.

Jury members include Anna Mattirolo, Director of MAXXI Arte and commissioner of the Prize; Hanru Hou, Artistic Director of MAXXI; Fabio Cavallucci, Director of the Centro per l'Arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato; Massimiliano Gioni Artistic Director of the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi in Milan, Associate Director and Director of Exhibitions of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York; the artist Giuseppe Penone and Susan Pfeffer, Artistic Director of the Kunsthalle Fridericianum in Kassel.

from May 28 until September 21, 2014
Premio MAXXI 2014
Yuri Ancarani, Micol Assaël, Linda Fregni Nagler, Marinella Senatore
curated by Giulia Ferracci
MAXXI - Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo
Via Guido Reni 4A, Roma

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