At HangarBicocca, Anicka Yi's solo exhibition featuring installations from the past decade

From February 24 to July 24, 2022, Pirelli HangarBicocca will host the solo exhibition of Anicka Yi (Seoul, 1971), Metaspore, curated by Fiammetta Griccioli and Vicente Todolí.

More than twenty installations will be on display that aim to investigate the concepts of metamorphosis, interdependence, ecosystem and symbiosis, unhinging the boundaries between science and art, organic and synthetic, human and non-human. In his production, the artist combines languages and themes from different fields, from philosophy to biology, from politics to science fiction. At the Milan exhibition, visitors will be thrown into asensory and perceptual experience through odors, mutant forms and disorienting biological elements. These include the multi-colored microbial ecosystems of the work Biologizing the Machine (zoonotic spillover), enclosed in large glass cases and the result of a collaboration with the Department of Environmental and Earth Sciences (DISAT) of the University of Milan-Bicocca. The work, in keeping with the dialogue between art and science, changes and reacts to its surroundings, shaping the visitors’ experience.

The exhibition itinerary is conceived as a synaesthetic and immersive journey that starts from the first projects in 2010, characterized by research on tactile and olfactory materials, and arrives at the installations made later, together with his studio and with the support of professional figures such as architects, scientists, perfumers, with the artist has carried out projects related to innovations in the fields of technology and science. Through the installations in the exhibition, made over the past decade, it is intended to explore Anicka Yi’smultifaceted approach of mixing perishable and industrial materials in assemblages intended to challenge the immutable aspect of sculpture and installation.

The title is inspired by the biological world: spores are the cellular units that reproduce and give rise to new living entities without the need for sexual reproduction. With the exhibition at HangarBicocca, a new chapter opens in the artist’s production: the choice to delve into past works stands as a reflective and imaginative moment for future developments and evolutions of his practice. The exhibition project focuses, on the one hand, on the olfactory dimension, presenting a series of works connoted by the use of fragrances, and, on the other, on the analysis of biological processes such as decomposition and metamorphosis.

Through a long corridor, originally created for the artist’s solo show at Kunsthalle Basel in 2015, the public will access the exhibition space. On each side of the structure is placed a series of glycerin soap sculptures and bacteria, enclosed and emphasized inside illuminated showcases; one is then immersed in a dark environment where the installations will emanate soft light, creating a suspended atmosphere. Along the way, visitors will be confronted with numerous other works that invite reflection on the concepts of body, interdependence, ecosystem and symbiosis.

On the occasion of the exhibition, a revamped and expanded version of Biologizing the Machine (terra incognita) was made, presented at the 58. Venice Biennale in 2019 and here commissioned and produced specifically for Pirelli HangarBicocca. Continuing her multi-year research on bacteria, Anicka Yi and her studio collaborated with the Department of Environmental and Earth Sciences (DISAT) of the University of Milan-Bicocca to re-present the work, with the new title Biologizing the Machine (zoonotic spillover) and in a completely reconfigured display. Seven large glass cases house a Winogradsky culture, a locally created ecosystem of soil bacteria, cyanobacteria and algae. Going through cycles of growth, stasis and decay, the work contrasts rules and chaos and transforms over time as it reacts to its surroundings: the organisms take on different colorations that generate suspended paintings that will change during the exhibition period.

Then Auras, Orgasms and Nervous Peaches (2011), made for the artist’s first solo show at 47 Canal Gallery in New York, will be presented. The work appears as an empty, aseptic room with no ceiling, while the outer walls ooze olive oil, triggering a short-circuit between inside and outside, evoking the fluids that seep in and out of the body. Similarly, in another work exhibited, Skype Sweater (2010/2017), the artist investigates the body in its organic and political aspects, using materials iconic to her visual language, such as air, gel and tempura-fried objects. The installation questions the exploitation of bodies, their relationship to the animal dimension and the consumerist and capitalist lifestyle, using culinary techniques and recalling glycerin, a basic ingredient in cosmetics. Another work in the exhibition is Shameplex (2015), consisting of seven plexiglass containers filled with a green ultrasound gel inside which are stuck pins, which rust when in contact with the glutinous substance.

For info: https://pirellihangarbicocca.org/

Hours: Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Free admission with reservations required.

Image: Anicka Yi, Le Pain Symbiotique (2014; PVC, projector, single-channel video, glycerin, resin, impasto, pigmented powder, plastic, Mylar, beads, tempera paint, 213.36 × 396.24 cm; Installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles). Courtesy of the artist, Gladstone Gallery and 47 Canal, New York.

At HangarBicocca, Anicka Yi's solo exhibition featuring installations from the past decade

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