Following up on the acquisition policy that Collezione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo has conducted in recent years, Zone is not an exhibition, but a long-term project aimed at highlighting a vision of contemporary art collecting.
The Foundation presents twelve works by young artists who are researching the language of contemporary art. In addition to two works from the Cremaster series by Matthew Barney, it is possible to view one of the last photo works by German artist Thomas Demand. Gabriel Orozco's work is also a photograph, although based on the idea of sculpture, and is comprised of forty photos taken in Berlin, forming an installation that documents two worlds, East and West, as they converge on the same point they departed from. Two contradictory visions of death are shown by the work of departed artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres and by Damien Hirst's brutal oxen head. An analysis of narrative language and how it is used in contemporary artistic research is the subject of the installation by Lothar Hempel, one of the most interesting artists of the new German generation, who was already featured in exhibitions at the Arc de Paris and at the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam. From a similar point of view, even though in a completely independent way, Anna Gaskell uses photography to go down memory lane - in both individual and literary terms. Rachel Whitehead's works also deal with memory, showing an empty space that takes concrete shape. Sarah Lucas has a different, opposed sensibility, but is just as influential on the London art scene. Her work is an outrageous confrontation with the idea of self-portrait. History as a private fact is the subject of Cuban artist Kcho's sculptures, which have already been the focus of a personal exhibition at Los Angeles's Moca. Finally, the exhibition introduces the work of Massimo Vitali, an Italian artist who has recently been given important shows at London's Photographers Gallery, at the Marianne Boesky Gallery of New York and at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie of Arles.
Zone therefore centers on a group of works that move among different forms of memory, from and towards different directions. Zone appears to be a symbolical place, where you think about the idea of a collection and about the perspectives of a more open society that is constantly evolving.
Exhibited artists
Matthew Barney, Thomas Demand, Anna Gaskell, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Lothar Hempel, Damien Hirst, Kcho, Sarah Lucas, Gabriel Orozco, Massimo Vitali, Rachel Whiteread
