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8/8/2013

Kaarina Kaikkonen

K11 Art space, Shanghai

The large installation commissioned to Kaarina Kaikkonen by Collezione Maramotti Are We Still Going On? (2012) has been requested by K11 Concept - Art Department of Shanghai - and will be exhibited from August to September 2013.

The installation is composed of two symmetrical structures evoking the skeleton of a large boat. The plain hull is subdivided into two sections developing from the ceiling down to touching the floor, with the same half-circular compositional rhythm created with garments tied and knotted together. As for the colour choice marking the two complementary structures, the garments evoke a symbolic dialogue between the masculine and the feminine: lighter on one side; with colder hues on the other. The whole ensemble exudes a colour combination of harmonious beauty.

Conceived specifically for the former factory of Max Mara fashion company, the garments, which seem to be holding hands, also speak of the history of an important production place, not only for clothes but also for ideas, where employees and staff have all contributed to create and make this reality grow as a collective project. As such, the icon of the boat collects in itself this tension towards discovery and progress.

In Kaikkonen's works, objects become alive and speak to us of stories, of people. They also – and specifically – talk of her. They evoke frailness, but also hope and regeneration. They seem to evoke in viewers an emotional, personal experience, and at the same time a sort of mirroring, an identification in the community. The big installations represent a community of passing-through voices, in a dialogue with nature and social spaces, in their being the story of each and every one; a story openly conveying a universal feeling each of us may identify with, and draw what is perceived most intensively.

Alongside the monumental features of her works – always strongly imbued with the environmental and architectural elements surrounding them – there is also a core linked to the impermanence and frailty of materials somewhat pointing back to the frailty of human beings. The movement of "coming and going" from something is a recurrent formal element in the artist's work, thus contributing to create a time bridge between past memories and their tension towards the future.

Press office Collezione Maramotti tel. +39 349 2529989 ufficiostampa@collezionemaramotti.org


K11 Concept - Art Department
B3, Huaihai Zhong Lu, 300 Shanghai

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