Maurizio Cattelan: WE
Leeum Museum of Art, Seoul
January 31 - July 16, 2023
Leeum Museum of Art presents WE, a solo exhibition by Maurizio Cattelan (b. 1960, Padua, Italy). Comprised of 38 works from the three decades since his emergence in the 1990s, this is the Italian artist’s first solo exhibition in South Korea, and the largest survey of his oeuvre since his 2011 retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
WE features works of sculpture, mural, photography, and installation that embody the artist’s deadpan humor, defiance, and provocation. On view are animal taxidermy works such as Ghosts (2021) and Bidibidobidiboo (1996), hyperreal effigies including La Nona Ora (1999), and variations of self-portraits like Untitled (2001), Charlie (2003), and We (2010). WE also brings forth some among the most stimulating works by Maurizio Cattelan - Him (2001), an effigy of a boy with Adolf Hitler’s face kneeling in prayer and Comedian (2019), a banana duct-taped to a wall that stirred a chain of controversies when debuted at the 2019 Art Basel Miami Beach.
With no formal training in fine art, Maurizio Cattelan started his career by designing furniture after working various odd jobs. The unconventional trajectory of his life and career has contributed to his artistic persona as an intruder and provocateur in the art world, audaciously crossing boundaries and challenging stereotypes.
Maurizio Cattelan’s hyperrealistic sculptures and paintings are straightforward and recognizable, while also cleverly and stealthily appropriating art history and popular culture. Strewn with satirical and cynical anecdotes, his works audaciously demand us to confront uncomfortable truths and overturn our foundations of perception. Distancing himself from the role of an artist who preaches or enlightens, Cattelan voluntarily caricatures and offers himself up to accusations of fraud, ridicule and criticism. Ironically, the very antics that garnered him a reputation as a provocateur, prankster, and even a swindler at times, render him a keen critic of reality piercing through human nature and contemporary society. From all corners of the exhibition, the gaze of multiple Maurizio Cattelans as intruder, police officer, priest, criminal, artist, and boy invite us to partake in a Cattelanesque theater of human comedy and the provocative jokester intricately mobilizes Chaplin-style comic devices throughout the space, forging wistful bonds in the face of the cruelty of life.
WE, the title of the exhibition, borrowed from one of the artist’s works, is more than a simple reference to the piece; it questions what exactly is meant by the word: Who are "we"? What makes us who "we" are? And how are "we" related? Maurizio Cattelan's practice challenges us to reflect on these questions while considering the notions of oppression, anxiety, authority, religion, love, family, life and death, altogether encouraging deeper conversations and facilitating greater solidarity. An image of a pope struck down by a meteorite (La Nona Ora, 1999) resonates beyond the religion and region it represents, ushering in a broader debate on the meaning of authority and oppression. The nine Carrara marble sculptures reminiscent of corpses (All, 2007) commemorate and remind us of a recent tragedy nearby, circling us back to our stark realities and gently touching our lives.
LEEUM MUSEUM OF ART
60-16, Itaewon-ro 55-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, 04348
