STRANGE CREATURES THAT YOU KNOW
The first work I saw of Maurizio Cattelan (1960-) was this.
I don’t remember which museum I was in. I think it was Beaubourg but can’t be certain. It’s a very long time ago. From the back, I thought it was a child kneeling and then I saw « Him » - yes it is definitely him with his distinctive moustache. Adolf Hitler looks more like a child with the body of a 10 year old and the head of an adult. Should I smile? Laugh? Or cry? There is no answer, but this time I knew what I was seeing.
Who is this man? Maurizio Catelan. Firstly, the exhibition is called « Not Afraid of Love ». Why that? He closed himself off from the public for five years of early retirement struggling to avoid too many appearances. Not something that most artists would do. He has now come back to reveal himself. A lot of the work I knew already but in the Musée de la Monnaie with such fabulous space, it comes very much alive, to the extent that you look at a work twice if not three times, to make sure it’s not smiling at you…or winking…or…
Coming into this is quite a shock. I saw at once that the works we would see were related to History, to memory and as I went through I would discover other things as well.
Pope Saint John Paul ll gained the compassion of the world over not hiding his illness or his suffering. You can only see fragility of human experience in this « body ». But he seems to be half leaning as if he sought strength and from the heavens. Then came a meteorite which had no respect for any of that. I turned around and around….and around…this was done in 1999.
It was a pleasant change to see these…I’m sure if I had patted them they would have responded. (2007). These celebrities have adopted a chick…nothing could be more incongruous, could it?
There he is? Peeping out of a hole. Don’t tread on his hands now. He may say Ouch. Although « untitled » it is of course Maurizio himself.
I have also seen the horses. We could see one with his head well inside a wall - hiding I would think from cruelty. « Against Art, against life » it is called and done in 2007. I defined it as « cruelty » yet, it is also supposed to say « out of order » « finished », or « out of action ». Solitary, exhausted…Cattelan went through a difficult period at one moment. Was it representing this?
The other horse which we see over the main staircase is also thought provoking. Out of reach and represents the transport of a horse, an operation that requires lifting it, head down as if the poor beast is guilty of something…for me this represented total dependency - somehow it could never do alone.
There they are. Eyes wide open and I think this is what strikes you most. An unsettling posture and intimate at the same time. They have been lying there since 2010.
This particular sculpture made me laugh out loud. Literally! It looks just like a man that I haven’t seen in years. Coincidence had it that I dreamt of him the night before I came.
Although once again « untitled » (2000) he terms it as « We are the Revolution » and includes us in a revolutionary game featuring the artist as an ironic anti-hero hanging from a clothe’s rack!
Although these lined out bodies didn’t seem to reveal much, they were nine sculptures « frozen in marble », draped in white stiff and freezing shroud. Perhaps this suggest the unbearable anonymity of death and the reverential rite associated with it. Bodies that you would like to comfort, identify and even make them come back to life. (2007).
I nearly missed this. Mini-Me, (1999) There he is, seated above us admits books. He is looking at us and wondering what we are doing..I’d like to communicate with him up there, but not the pigeons.
I heard the drums beating when I first saw the Pope. But where were they? Now I discovered him….right up looking down at the Pope and beating his drum
« Charlie Don’t Surf », (1997). From the back of Charlie, there is nothing to worry about but then horror, he has been stopped…He is alone, hands flat on a table like I remember we had to put ours down on the desk for nail inspection at school. Has he been punished?
A photograph. The hand are joined. As if in prayer. The body buried under the sand…or perhaps ash? Is this another indication of how much Cattelan can manifest against cruelty? War…
Maurizio Cattelan is dead. This was the rumor the day before the exhibition opened - but it was just another of his jokes even if a very sordid one. Maybe it should be titled « Never Forget me? » We see the poor, the needy, the immigrants, the gypsies like this on the Paris street every day…so many of us are indifferent now as there are just too many to cope with…
As a last an image which can only be seen from a little way off….cruelty again
and I left the exhibition feeling exhausted. Cattelan is saying so much that for me it is necessary to stay quite a moment with each one of his sculptures…the only one I feel in security with were the dogs and the chick.
Who is this man? Maurizio Catelan. Firstly, the exhibition is called « Not Afraid of Love ». Why that? He closed himself off from the public for five years of early retirement struggling to avoid too many appearances. Not something that most artists would do. He has now come back to reveal himself. A lot of the work I knew already but in the Musée de la Monnaie with such fabulous space, it comes very much alive, to the extent that you look at a work twice if not three times, to make sure it’s not smiling at you…or winking…or…
Coming into this is quite a shock. I saw at once that the works we would see were related to History, to memory and as I went through I would discover other things as well.
 | |
It was a pleasant change to see these…I’m sure if I had patted them they would have responded. (2007). These celebrities have adopted a chick…nothing could be more incongruous, could it?
 | |
There he is? Peeping out of a hole. Don’t tread on his hands now. He may say Ouch. Although « untitled » it is of course Maurizio himself.
I have also seen the horses. We could see one with his head well inside a wall - hiding I would think from cruelty. « Against Art, against life » it is called and done in 2007. I defined it as « cruelty » yet, it is also supposed to say « out of order » « finished », or « out of action ». Solitary, exhausted…Cattelan went through a difficult period at one moment. Was it representing this?
The other horse which we see over the main staircase is also thought provoking. Out of reach and represents the transport of a horse, an operation that requires lifting it, head down as if the poor beast is guilty of something…for me this represented total dependency - somehow it could never do alone.
 | |
There they are. Eyes wide open and I think this is what strikes you most. An unsettling posture and intimate at the same time. They have been lying there since 2010.
 | |
This particular sculpture made me laugh out loud. Literally! It looks just like a man that I haven’t seen in years. Coincidence had it that I dreamt of him the night before I came.
Although once again « untitled » (2000) he terms it as « We are the Revolution » and includes us in a revolutionary game featuring the artist as an ironic anti-hero hanging from a clothe’s rack!
Although these lined out bodies didn’t seem to reveal much, they were nine sculptures « frozen in marble », draped in white stiff and freezing shroud. Perhaps this suggest the unbearable anonymity of death and the reverential rite associated with it. Bodies that you would like to comfort, identify and even make them come back to life. (2007).
I nearly missed this. Mini-Me, (1999) There he is, seated above us admits books. He is looking at us and wondering what we are doing..I’d like to communicate with him up there, but not the pigeons.
I heard the drums beating when I first saw the Pope. But where were they? Now I discovered him….right up looking down at the Pope and beating his drum
 |
« Charlie Don’t Surf », (1997). From the back of Charlie, there is nothing to worry about but then horror, he has been stopped…He is alone, hands flat on a table like I remember we had to put ours down on the desk for nail inspection at school. Has he been punished?
 |
A photograph. The hand are joined. As if in prayer. The body buried under the sand…or perhaps ash? Is this another indication of how much Cattelan can manifest against cruelty? War…
Maurizio Cattelan is dead. This was the rumor the day before the exhibition opened - but it was just another of his jokes even if a very sordid one. Maybe it should be titled « Never Forget me? » We see the poor, the needy, the immigrants, the gypsies like this on the Paris street every day…so many of us are indifferent now as there are just too many to cope with…
As a last an image which can only be seen from a little way off….cruelty again
and I left the exhibition feeling exhausted. Cattelan is saying so much that for me it is necessary to stay quite a moment with each one of his sculptures…the only one I feel in security with were the dogs and the chick.
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