An exhibition at Centro Balneare Romano, in Milan
From September 12 to October 16, 2022, the Nicola Trussardi Foundation presents a new project created especially for the city of Milan: Gilded Darkness, by American artist Nari Ward. In the outdoor and indoor spaces of the Centro Balneare Romano (Swimming Centre Romano), in the Città Studi area, Nari Ward will bring never-before-seen works, created for the occasion, alongside celebrated sculptures, installations, and environmental interventions.
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Known for his sculptures and installations assembled from salvaged materials since the early 1990s, Nari Ward has contributed to imagining contemporary art and culture as global and polyphonic experiences. Of Jamaican descent, Ward moved with his family to New York at a young age and established his studio there. Impressed by the profusion of abandoned objects on the streets, Ward began collecting objects with strong symbolic value. From the manipulation of these materials – strollers, shopping carts, umbrellas, shoelaces and other found objects and urban waste – came monumental installations that transformed the language of contemporary sculpture, introducing theatrical and immersive experiences that later became a distinctive aspect of art in this new century. The exhibition at the Centro Balneare Romano (which the Milanese also know as “Giulio Romano Pool,” or “Ponzio Pool”) opens with Amazing Grace, one of his best-known works, produced in 1993 in his Harlem studio. The installation includes more than 300 baby carriages arranged in the shape of a ship’s hull; the voice of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson sings Amazing Grace, the song that goes with the installation.
Alongside Amazing Grace are many new productions commissioned by the Nicola Trussardi Foundation, including Emergence Pool, a site-specific intervention on the swimming pool, a 4,000-square-foot rectangular pool almost the size of a soccer field – transformed into a giant golden expanse: a fragile raft composed of thousands of floating thermal blankets. Gilded Darkness is conceived and produced by the Nicola Trussardi Foundation and realized with the collaboration of Milanosport. Fondazionenicolatrussardi.com
Nari Ward
Gilded Darkness
curated by Massimiliano Gioni
Until October 16th, 2022
Centro Balneare Romano – Milanosport
Via Ampère 20 – Milan
