51²è¹Ý

The Pollock Gallery of the Division of Art at 51²è¹Ý’s Meadows School of the Arts will present the exhibition by Marco Bruzzone from September 10 through October 22, 2016. It is the first 51²è¹Ý exhibition curated by Sofia Bastidas as the 2016-17 Pollock Curatorial Fellow.

In the exhibition, Berlin-based artist Marco Bruzzone has created a conceptual constructed space composed of a built-in kitchen resembling a common middle-class American kitchen and a long communal picnic table referencing the furniture of minimalist artist Donald Judd. According to the artist, the work hopes to challenge the security and identity of a new/cheap/kitschy middle-class American dining environment with what might be its direct opposite – minimalist references that by default clash with the American middle-class notion of art. Bruzzone focuses on merging daily life activities and artistic practice, offering the spectator a moment of reflection on the domestic space and its function as a “readymade” (a term coined by French artist Marcel Duchamp around 1913 to indicate an everyday object that has been selected and designated as art).

The Built-In Kitchen of M. Duchamp was conceived as an environment in which people can reenact Marcel Duchamp’s supposedly typical meal after he moved to New York: a simple plate of pasta with butter and cheese. “The Triple Carbs Society invites visitors to experience this simple meal that was transformed into the artist’s body, his ideas and ultimately a sort of readymade conceptual form,” says Bastidas. The gallery space is occupied in the center by the built-in kitchen and will be used every day at lunch time to cook spaghetti with butter and cheese for the public. In order to test the hardness of the pasta, each day a single strand of spaghetti will be thrown against the wall of the gallery space. The 13-foot-long, Judd-style picnic table will be laminated with noodle-doodle, a graphic conceived by Bruzzone that recreates the form of the individual strands of spaghetti thrown on the walls. The laminate covering the table boards is produced and sponsored by the historic Italian company Abet Laminati. (Last year, Bruzzone presented a solo exhibition in Berlin in which he created a series of emojis based on the Bacterio laminate design pattern originally produced by Abet Laminati for E. Sottsass in 1978.)

“In this new, deceptively simple conceptual piece, the artist invites the visitor to interact with contemporary art in a more sociable way, blurring the division between artist and viewer and between art and life,” says Bastidas. “The art becomes a readymade as it once was with Duchamp’s own daily experience of eating simple white pasta. Visitors aren’t looking at the art, but are part of it – and are, in fact, making art and becoming art as they eat pasta.”

Sponsors of the exhibition are Abet Laminati and Dallas-based Jimmy’s Food Store.

About the Artist:

Marco Bruzzone (Genoa, 1974) is an artist based in Berlin. He studied biology at the University of Genoa and photography and new technologies at the Bauer Institute in Milan. He runs the Beyond, a gallery in the hollow of a platanus tree in Berlin. His work is primarily conceptual, and often explores the relationship people have with food and other general elements crossing people’s bodies. It often finds its final form through the mediums of painting, sculpture and performance. His work is represented by the Berlin gallery Gillmeier Rech and is exhibited regularly in international institutions and galleries. Recent exhibitions include: Hordaland Kunstsenter, Bergen, Norway; Kustverein Arnsberg, Germany; Ashley, Berlin; Museo Hermann Nitsch, Naples; Gillmeier Rech, Berlin; MJ, Geneva; Dingum, Berlin; Chateau Shatto, Los Angeles; Paradise Garage, Los Angeles; Performa 13, New York City; Kings ARI, Melbourne; Tag Team, Bergen; Almanac, London; Isabella Bortolozzi Galerie, Berlin; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen; VeneKlasen/Werner, Berlin; WIELS, Brussels; and Kunsthalle Basel and OSLO10, Basel. Bruzzone is now an artist in residence on Fogo Island.

About the Curator:

Curator and art historian Sofia Bastidas (Ecuador, 1987) graduated from Florida International University. She founded and directed Dwelling Projects (2012-15), a traveling residency that partnered with organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean. She co-organized TVGOV, a company that aims to direct government toward preservation of territory on land and at sea. In addition, she developed Port to Port, a curatorial endeavor facilitating multi- and inter-disciplinary practices, creating networks between global port cities. She is currently serving as the 2016-17 Pollock Curatorial Fellow at 51²è¹Ý. She is assistant curator of the Meadows Prize-winning New Cities, Future Ruins and is developing an informal initiative, the society of something, that hopes to engage in dialogues around contemporary realities in the cultural sphere and beyond it, helping shed light on the dynamics that are organizing present-day urban and global configurations.

About the Pollock Gallery:

The Pollock Gallery, part of the Division of Art at 51²è¹Ý’s Meadows School of the Arts, exhibits work by students and faculty members as well as emerging and established local, national and international artists, serving as a platform for the dissemination of ideas and discourse related to historical, modern and contemporary arts practices. The Gallery functions as a hub that connects the studio classroom with contemporary arts practice and provides a place for the consideration of pedagogy, artistic production and meaning on a larger scale. Over the years, the exhibitions and public programs organized by the Gallery have provided visitors with opportunities to experience diverse works of art from a wide range of artists, time periods and perspectives. Engagement with other academic institutions and the public at large is achieved through the scholarly production of publications, gallery talks and symposia.

The Pollock Gallery is located on the first floor of the Hughes-Trigg Student Center, 3140 Dyer St. on the 51²è¹Ý campus in Dallas. New gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. The gallery is closed Sunday and Monday. Admission is free. For more information, call 214-768-4439 or visit here.