Meet Vanessa Beecroft

Lia Rumma Gallery, Milan, the courtyard.

While in Milan I went to the opening of the internationally famous Italian artist Vanessa Beecroft, for her new exhibition and performance at the Galleria Lia Rumma, a big white cube on three levels with even space outside for installation of sculptures, a bonus for a city like Milan where space is at premium. Beecroft created a great performance with more then ten naked models, their bodies like sculptures, painted in different colors, sitting on marble slabs in various poses and moving in a very slow motion under the direction of the artist, who stays out of the scene though when the performance begins.
The live sculptures and the marble ones created a unique, very evocative sculptural group on the main level. It was a rainy day and we had to wait outside long time to allow only 150 people at a time to enter but it was worth the wait.

 

On the second and third level of the gallery amazingly powerful sculptures waited for us like the female figure above, emerging from the most amazing piece of marble, as all the others the artist uses: Green and Red Onyx, Blue Macaubas, Blue Lapis lazuli, Black Belgian marble and other precious cuts. The preciousness of the material contrasts with the fragmentation of the human body, always missing some parts, at first you admire the monumental work, but then you are forced to elaborate thoughts on the female condition and also on eating disorders, which are a constant theme in Beecroft’s art.

Above: models sitting on marble slabs, sculptures, the great, smart, gallery owner Lia Rumma dressed in white talking with Vittorio Sgarbi, a famous Italian art historian and art critic, a controversial and genial  personality and the curator of Padiglione Italia for the 2011 Venice Biennale. Of course the performance cannot be reproduced with a simple picture, because the two hours presented a continuous change and exchange between the public and the models. Things changed slowly and even my approach to her art as a viewer changed during the time I was there.

One model with the body painted in black, in a plastic pose. To see more pictures (professional ones) go to Lia Rumma website and click on “current”.

And here I am with beautiful Vanessa Beecroft, who now lives in Los Angeles continuing her study of the body, the beauty and the identity of the female gender.

Photography ©by Albarosa Simonetti

©2011 Brillante Interiors writes about new trends, timeless decor, iconic pieces, design ideas, or at times just musing about "a certain Italian way of doing things".


If you receive this post by Email and wish to leave a comment please click HERE and go to the comments section.
I love to hear from you!