Trittico

The spaces of the Cisterna –a preexisting building made up of three adjacent vertical structures which once contained enormous cisterns used to produce distillates– host Trittico, a dynamic display strategy devised by the Thought Council (Shumon Basar, Nicholas Cullinan, Cédric Libert).

Three carefully selected works from the Collezione Prada will hereon be installed at a time, periodically rotating. The Trittico display initiative will highlight a number of important ideas. The first is that our experience of a work of art is always relational, and understood through other works, either from the past or from parallel times. The second idea is that a collection such as the Collezione Prada, which spans works from the 16th to 21st centuries, contains many hidden histories of interpretation that exceed orthodox accounts. By focusing upon three works at a time, Trittico will prise out unexpected patterns between seemingly dissimilar artists and their works. Lastly, it also underlines the importance of encountering artistic works in the first person, under conditions quite different from those of a canonical museum. Here, visitors are immersed in a tangible three-dimensionality and rarified illumination –characteristics that no technological device can yet reproduce. The first selection for Trittico includes Case II (1968) by Eva Hesse, Lost Love (2000) by Damien Hirst e1 metro cubo di terra (1967) by Pino Pascali, three works that all develop minimalistic geometries by associating objects and elements of nature with the shape of the cube. Order, disorder, the complexity of human affairs versus natural materials. When set into the literal framework of a cube, the contents become a system of meaning. One that is as open as it is seemingly closed.