A marble fairy tale: in Milan, the new project of Neïl Beloufa

From May 20 to Sept. 2021, Fondazione Henraux presents, in the public space of Apple Piazza Liberty amphitheater in Milan, the project The Moral of the Story by French-Algerian artist Neïl Beloufa (Paris, 1985), curated by Edoardo Bonaspetti. The site-specific project consists of four installations decorated with bas-reliefs and inlays of polychrome marble depicting chapters of a fable written by the artist. The intervention, in one of the squares in downtown Milan that has changed its face most noticeably in recent years, is in dialogue with Beloufa’s solo exhibition currently underway at the Fondazione Pirelli HangarBicocca curated by Roberta Tenconi and will find its conclusion during Milan Art Week in September.

Beloufa’s practice is characterized by a layered language, a focus on technological experimentation and the construction of immersive environments. The relationship between the work and the viewer is at the center of The Moral of the Story: the protagonists of the tale (a camel, foxes and a colony of ants) face a series of misadventures that can be traced on the marble surfaces of the stations, arranged in non-chronological order. The outcome is a game between reality and fiction in which the visitor himself connects forms, stories and ideas. Story chapters can also be explored through smartphones thanks to QR codes that refer to a narrative voice and illustrations.

The choice of making seats as elements of street furniture to narrate a fable, the use of grooves in the bas-reliefs to make the surfaces of the tables “dysfunctional,” and color fields that blur the contours of the figures depicted, are all actions that prompt the audience to decide what to see or recognize. It is therefore up to the viewer to freely relate to the works and play with the text of the fable to discover what is what. The artist thus alters the power relations between author and audience, between object and work, offering more conscious and horizontal exhibition models in the hope that they will trigger new readings of our present. Exploiting the strategies of entertainment to intervene in the way we react to representations and contexts, Beloufa creates an exhibition as an “open” system, the result of a practice that adopts intentionally destabilizing aesthetic registers.

The works, produced by the Henraux company with 3D marble processing technologies and hand-finished by skilled craftsmen, can be viewed both during the day and in the evening hours. Neïl Beloufa’s The Moral of the Story offers an opportunity for reflection through artistic research and symbolic language that recognize experimentation and sharing as the privileged tools for change.

Neïl Beloufa was born in 1985 in Paris where he lives and works. His practice ranges from film to sculpture and installation, directing his interests toward mechanisms of interpretation of reality, areas he explores without moral judgment, cultural cynicism or irony, albeit sometimes with humor. His work has been the subject of monographic exhibitions at numerous international institutions, including Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2018); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2018 and 2012); K11, Shanghai (2016); MoMA, New York (2016); Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2015); ICA, London (2014); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2013). His works have also been included in prestigious exhibitions such as the International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (2019 and 2013), the Biennale of the Moving Image in Geneva (2018), the Shanghai Biennale (2014) and the Lyon Biennale (2013).

A marble fairy tale: in Milan, the new project of Neïl Beloufa

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