Secci gallery presents the brand new exhibitions “Safety” that includes work by Claire Fontaine at “NOVO,” a Milanese program devoted to up to date experimentation seen via the attention of 1 single curator, at this time acknowledged within the individual of Pier Paolo Pancotto.

Liber* Tutt* (2023) “Everyone Free” is a big signal that manifests within the area the issue of the epicene language and the methods used to beat it. The asterisk that forestalls the gendered ending of the 2 phrases acts as a performative graphic gesture, which means to free us from the conditioning that comes with gender stereotypes and that restrict our lives inside patriarchal society. After a summer season in Italy the place the implications of freedom for the female and male gender has been put below scrutiny due to a number of occasions involving femicide and rape, we want via this signal to revive the plain: freedom isn’t inhibition and it’s not abuse, it’s understanding what connects us to one another and honoring it exterior of the violent conventions that now we have accepted as “normality.”

Defend Me From What I Don’t Need (2023) is a sculpture made with the artisanal strategy of sign-making used for spiritual celebrations and festivities within the public area in southern Italy. The arched type of the body, the place sit the geometric and crude letters designed by the artist, is harking back to the form of the signal that stands on prime of the gate of the Auschwitz focus camp “Arbeit macht frei.” The content material (defend me from what I don’t need) is a hijack of Jenny Holzer’s iconic illuminated slogan Defend Me From What I Need that was exhibited in 1982 on one of many screens of Occasions Sq.. The ambiguous which means of the unique truism could be attributed to the conflicting impulses coming from the need inducing commercials or from female needs inside a patriarchal society. Claire Fontaine as an alternative states the plain with this virtually superstitious phrase that expresses little doubt or ambivalence about what or who needs to be prevented. The work acts like a form of talisman.

at SECCI, Milan
till December 23, 2023