DO YOU THINK THIS IS THE BEST WAY TO START?
An open-air one-day group show set in the Porta Venezia neighborhood
«It’s 9AM on a Milanese summer day. The sun is already brightening and shining up in the sky while heating the roads. In the outskirts of the city, there’s an old guy who’s rolling up a cardboard on the white surface of a sailing truck with slow, punctual, repetitive gestures performed as a devout ritual. A group of people is looking at the old man waiting to see what the surface is gonna reveal. But soon after, the engine starts and the truck leaves the place. It’s time to start.»
On the occasion of its first exhibition Do you think this is the best way to start? MASSIMO hosts an open-air, one-day group show set in the Porta Venezia neighborhood. A sailing truck - placed in front of the facade in via Degli Scipioni 7 - is the chosen medium to present the new works of five young international artists: Luis Campos, Nicole Colombo, Neckar Doll, Annkathrin Kluss and MiamiSafari.
Moving from a private, fixed space - the white walls of the gallery alter their substance turning into the ellipsoidal surface of the sailing truck. In the midst of a Milanese street, the show is a mobile installation set to disrupt the urban setting. Exposed to everyone to be seen, the exhibition allows both the willful and the casual visitor to react: enjoying it or hating it, understanding it, making fun of it or just moving on.
Moving from a deep introspection and observation on the contemporary, MASSIMO takes upon itself the task to absorb and mirror the urgencies and possibilities of the current times through its first public showing. The innate human need to imagine and create connections between images, ideals and individual thoughts is translated into a deeper, comprehensive feeling that aims to set an ever evolving conversation.
The five artists are called upon to coexist in a condensed, single space. Finding themselves forced to live together, they get to rethink their work area by including “the other” in their practice. Just like MASSIMO goes public figuratively breaking its walls, each artist has to exceed his own personal process in order to reach a communal meaning.
With the aim of establishing a great contact with its community and the everyday life that surrounds its space, MASSIMO reconsiders the exhibition format while going beyond the traditional notion of billboard.
Do you think this is the best way to start? comes as an ironic, thought-provoking challenge for the first chapter of MASSIMO experience. A question that opens up a debate and calls for a conclusion to everyone who gets in touch with the exhibition.
Luis Campos
Ciudad De Mexico, 1989
- is a Mexican artist whose work mixes two-dimensional and sculptural supports, mediated by analog and digital production processes. Said work is installed in the exhibition space as an expanded statement about memory, history, speculation and translation as an aesthetic / emotional exercise. He studied at the Centro de las Artes de San Augustin. His works were shown at Bexpo 6, at NeoTortillería (Guanajuato 2020) ; Salon Acme No 7, Juarez (2019); Una Mona con tu Sangre, a solo show at YOPEps gallery, Oaxaca (2018).
Nicole Colombo
Monza, 1991
- lives and works in Milan. She uses tools as the creation of avatar, fictional character, objects that inhabit the space, in order to fascinate and tickle the viewer. In her works public’s personal memories come into action in order to create different possible stories. In February 2020 she inaugurated her first solo exhibition entitled SAM, curated by Greta Scarpa, at BitCorp for Art, Milan. Among the collective exhibitions in which she tooks part we mention: First I Have To Put My Face On curated by Christina Gigliotti at Like a Little Disaster (Polignano a Mare, 2018); Jollies, at Officina 500 curated by Gelateria Sogni di Ghiaccio (Torino, 2017); Paradise on Mars, at OJ Art Space (Istanbul) curated by Erdem Çetrez (2017); Kodomo No Hi, at Sonnenstube, Lugano (2017); Bubble Tea, curated by Pane Project, Milano (2016) Academy Awards 2015, at Viafarini (Milano).
Neckar Doll
Mulhouse, 1995
- is a French artist who lives and works in Mulhouse, France. Neckar’s work is a crossover between cultures (pop-culture, scientific culture...). The result is a chaotic chimera. Neckar studied at HEAR (Hautes Écoles des Arts du Rhin, Mulhouse, France). He took part in several group shows including EDEN, a project hosted by Sajetta and developed by PANE project and Like a Little Disaster (2020); Baitball 01, a project hosted by Like a Little Disaster at Palazzo san Giuseppe Polignano with other 16 galleries and project spaces (Polignano, 2020); Solo Show, Chapter 3, curated by Underground Flower in partnership with Rhizome Parking Garage and Harlesden High Street (2020).
Annkathrin Kluss
Frankfurt, 1991
- multimedia installations state identity as construction and ask how external environments and internal worlds of mind shape each other in a feedback loop. Currently Kluss is a student of fine arts at the University of the Arts Berlin in the Lensbased Class by Hito Steyerl and holds a scholarship by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. Her works were shown, among others, in the Museum Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt am Main, Babylon Cinema Berlin, Eigen+Art Lab Berlin and Museum of Photography Berlin.
MIAMISAFARI
- are Matias Julian Nativo and Alessia Prati (+) since 2016. Self publishing as performance, performance as self-publishing. Their practice is inspired by the way in which music cultures generate collective, emotional and visual experiences. They build a dynamic and temporary identity through collaborations with other authors. They recently took part in different shows including Che Fare? What Is To Be Done?, curated by Cecilia Casorati, presented by RAM Radioartemobile (Roma, 2020); Free Stage, curated by Alberto Garutti at ArtVerona (Verona, 2019); Pendaison de crémaillère, curated by Campobase Project at Fondazione Sandretto Rebaudengo (Torino, 2019); The Hidden City curated by Cloe Piccoli at Manifesta 12, Collateral Event 5x5x5 (Palermo, 2018).