The artists in TARANTULA: Vito Acconci, Victor Alimpiev, Johanna Billing, John Bock, Roberto Cuoghi, Rä di Martino, Trisha Donnelly, Mark Leckey, Klara Liden, Pipilotti Rist, Aïda Ruilova, Marcus Schinwald, Patrick Tuttofuoco, and Gillian Wearing

pagina 1/1

Milan. From June 30th to July 27th 2008 the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi in collaboration with MIA - Milano In Alto presents TARANTULA, an anthology of artists’ films and videos to be projected in the historic setting of Piazza del Duomo in Milan.

During the month of July in the heart of the city of Milan, a 500 square meter screen (more than 5,000 square feet, the biggest LED wall in Europe) that covers the scaffolding of Palazzo dell’Arengario in Piazza del Duomo, will be transformed into an unusual site for a series of public projections of artists’ films and videos.

Part open air cinema, part incursion into the spaces traditionally reserved for advertisements, TARANTULA presents the visions and hallucinations of 15 contemporary artists right in the centre of Milan. Twice a day, for two hours, each artist will be given the gigantic mediascreen in Piazza Duomo. As strange mirages hover over the Piazza, the videos in TARANTULA will guide viewers and passers-by into a journey through collective illusions and possible new worlds.

From Pipilotti Rist’s giant faces to Gillian Wearing’s video confessions, Victor Alimpiev’s obscure rituals to Mark Leckey’s lysergic dances, and Vito Acconci’s legendary performances to Roberto Cuoghi’s cruel cartoons, TARANTULA depicts a universe in which ecstasy, madness and loss of control re-define the way in which people experience public space, acting out private fears and shared desires.

Borrowing its title from Bob Dylan’s celebrated experimental novel, which also evoked ancient rituals of possession, TARANTULA describes an upside-down world in which order is suspended so that new rules and behaviours can transform life into a joyful carnival of exceptions.
Both a festival of recent video art and a series of monographic presentations, TARANTULA brings together – for the first time in a public space – a unique selection of works that depict a world of apparitions and revelations that materialize in the daily routine of the city.

With TARANTULA, the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi continues its search for new channels and strategies to distribute contemporary art in the city of Milan, presenting the most interesting voices of today’s art to the broadest possible audiences. The Fondazione Nicola Trussardi is also currently planning a new exhibition project for the Fall, for which information will be available soon.

The artists in TARANTULA: Vito Acconci, Victor Alimpiev, Johanna Billing, John Bock, Roberto Cuoghi, Rä di Martino, Trisha Donnelly, Mark Leckey, Klara Liden, Pipilotti Rist, Aïda Ruilova, Marcus Schinwald, Patrick Tuttofuoco, and Gillian Wearing.


TARANTULA is curated by: Massimiliano Gioni, Artistic Director, Fondazione Nicola Trussardi.
TARANTULA is presented by the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi in collaboration with the project MIA - Milano In Alto, Piazza del Duomo (realized by Urban Screen Spa).