Fondazione Prada delves into complex interpretations of art

With three events scheduled for Fondazione Prada’s Milan venue from now until early February 2016, art connoisseurs can sink their teeth into a rich variety of art that has challenged the norms throughout history.

The programme kicks off on 10 October 2015, with the European premiere of Troublemakers: The Story of Land Art by director James Crump, which will show at Fondazione Prada Cinema. A film that explores the creative process of artists like Walter De Maria, Michael Heizer and Robert Smithson, Troublemakers pays tribute to their (almost literally) groundbreaking, monumental installations. These large-scale earthworks were created by altering and repositioning large quantities of soil and rocks, or by adding metallic elements to large areas of land. It’s here that rare footage of their most iconic works, as well as interviews with an array of prominent artists – some of whom were direct witnesses to their process – uncover the rebellious, heroic and iconoclastic nature of these pioneers who challenged artistic conventions of their times.

From 5 November 2015 to 10 January 2016, an anthological exhibit celebrating Gianni Piacentino’s deviation from the dominant tendancies of art of his time – Pop art and Minimal Art – takes over Fondazione Prada. Over 100 artworks that retrace Piacention’s career in reverse-chronological order will be shown, from his most recent pieces from 2015 to those dating back to 1965. Piacentino creates a new visual language by mixing the attention to pop and consumeristic imagery and the appreciation for both geometrical and primary forms.

The month of December marks the start of Recto Verso, a thematic show that will run from 4 December 2015 to 7 February 2016 in the Nord gallery, conceived by the Fondazione Prada Thought Council. As “recto” refers to the western art tradition of paintings concieved as frontal artifacts, “verso” is the back of these artworks which carry less cultural significance and are only visible to the artists themselves or staff at museums and galleries. The exhibition consciously highlights these hidden, concealed and forgotten elements of “the back” of paintings. 

Visit the Fondazione Prada’s website here.