Jimmie Durham: Humanity is not a completed project

Museo Madre presents the first retrospective exhibition in Italy of Jimmie Durham whose practice shows how art can create new methodologies, combining language and matter to establish an experimental dialogue. From his very first works, he criticised the construction of fixed notions of identity and their instrumentalisation in public discourse.

His explorations of the relationships between architecture, text and religious dogma ran in parallel to his critiques of established media and genres of European art. The exhibition culminates in an exploration of Durham’s investigative processes and of his attention to materials, including his deeply playful love of language. Words occupy a predominant place throughout his work, whether in poetry and performance, or visibly integrated in titles and textual interventions.