Lara Favaretto at Skulptur Projekte Münster
With the openings this weekend of both Skulptur Projekte Münster and documenta 14, the contemporary art world enjoys, along with the ongoing Venice Biennale, a rare trifecta of the major continental exhibitions. We’ll look at the work of some of the Italian artists whose work takes part in or comments upon the international art fair scene.
Lara Favaretto’s Momentary Monument — The Stone (2017) sits in a quiet meadow between Ludgeriplatz Square and the Promenade on the outskirts of Münster, quietly interrogating the nearby public memorial to Germany’s colonial exploits.
Commissioned for this decade’s Skulptur Projekte, the Treviso-born, Turin-based Favaretto revived her Momentary Monuments series, which, since it was inaugurated in 2005, has seen monoliths, walls, and barriers of debris and scrap erected in New York City, Liverpool, Kabul, Kassel, and Venice, only to be later demolished. Münster’s iteration is an unassuming hollow cenotaph reminiscent of both 2001: A Space Odyssey and a grave marker. as with the project of the same name that was included in last year’s Liverpool Biennale, the monument is tactile and accessible, including an opening into which visitors can throw their spare change. At the close of Skulptur Projekte, Momentary Monument — The Stone will be ceremonially shattered, the rubble redistributed around the city and the money donated to Hilfe für Menschen in Abschiebehaft Büren e.V., a local foundation that advocates for the abolition of deportation detention.
Momentary Monument — The Stone, 2017. Photo: © Photo: Henning Rogge for Skulptur Projekte.
Homage to Albert Dadas, 2010. Photo: Fondazione Furla.
Just Knocked Out, 2012. © MoMA PS1; Photo: Matthew Septimus.
We All Fall Down, 2015. Photo: Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen.
Posted by Jean Marie Carey