MACRO presents Secret Garden by Cameroonian artist Pascale Marthine Tayou, an exhibition on view November 29, 2012–February 10, 2013.
Pascale Marthine Tayou, The Magic Calabash, 2012. Pumpkins, mixed media, variable dimensions. Courtesy GALLERIA CONTINUA, San Gimignano / Beijing / Le Moulin.
Pascale Marthine Tayou, who is among the most significant characters in the international contemporary art scene, will work in situ and in close connection with the exhibition spaces dedicated to the magic of space, suggestive light and architectural forms of the museum, taking advantage of the height and unique extension of the Sala Enel.
There will be the installation The Magic Calabash, made of an enormous quantity of suspended pumpkins, and Black Diamond, an installation in which iron structures in diamond form hang from above in a new arrangement conceived specifically for the museum. Completing the exhibition are works realized for the Musée d’Aquitaine in Bordeaux, such as the sculpture series “Poupées Pascale” dressed in chocolate,”Sauveteur Vendor” and “Masques” carried out in crystal and various materials. All of the works give a platform to the Western conception of African exoticism that is full of energy and vitality, but is also complex and contradictory.
The artist’s work, as his name written in the feminine form delineates, is deliberately heterogeneous and indefinable, elusive in respect to predetermined patterns. The definition of Tayou’s poetic process hangs between the eccentric and colorful story of everyday life and the necessity to mix human characteristics and geographies, cultures and situations, which are not easy to identify.
Curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi.
MACRO – The Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome
Via Nizza 138, Rome
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www.museomacro.org.