MILAN.- Pirelli HangarBicocca presents CITTÀDIMILANO, the solo show by Giorgio Andreotta Calò. Combining artworks from earlier stages in his career with more recent pieces, brought together for the first time, the show transforms and radically reconfigures the space. The exhibition flows in a way that generates stories and perspectives on a variety of different times and places, from Venice to Milan, from the depths of the sea to those of the subsoil.

Giorgio Andreotta Calò (Venice, 1979; he lives and works in Italy and the Netherlands) is one of the most remarkable Italian artists of recent years and represented Italy at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017). His works include sculptures, large-scale site-specific installations and spatial works that transform both fragments of buildings and entire landscapes; they are often designed to be included in a rich patchwork of self-referencing connections, in part through the use of natural elements dense with symbolic meanings, such as water, light and fire. His work is rooted in conceptual and processual practices typical of artists of the Sixties and Seventies but it also evolves into new directions. It always comes as the result of a long process of research into materials—from the more classical, such as bronze and wood, to the more unusual, such as caranto clay, the submarine layer beneath the city of Venice—, processing techniques and their origin. His interest in organic materials links his works to current international debates on the use and dispersal of raw materials and themes of socio-ecological change.

The constant re-elaboration and reconfiguration of his works based on the geographical and cultural context in which they are exhibited is an integral part of his artistic methodology. For CITTÀDIMILANO the artist focuses on his sculptural practice, displaying works created since 2008, and here conceived as part of a single landscape that transforms the perception of the environment and highlights the links existing between the artworks in a close dialogue. Visitors are thus invited to make their own connections and create their own route through the exhibition. Giorgio Andreotta Calò has also carried out research into the history of the Pirelli Company, creating new works that bring to light previously unknown stories from the past, linked to the city of Milan but similarly related to themes and locations already present in the artist’s work. With this exhibition, Pirelli HangarBicocca yet again confirms its commitment to supporting experimentation in the arts and the production of new works.

Giorgio Andreotta Calò’s works have been exhibited at internationally renowned sites and institutions, including Oude Kerk, Amsterdam (2018); SMART Project Space, Amsterdam (2012); MAXXI Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo in Rome—on the occasion of him receiving the Premio Italia Arte Contemporanea (2012)—and the Galleria Civica, Trento (2009). Giorgio Andreotta Calò has taken part in numerous group exhibitions and institutions, including the 16th Quadriennale d’Arte, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome (2016); High Line Art, New York (2016); Triennale di Milano (2015); 54th Venice Biennale (2001). In 2017, he represented Italy at the 57th Venice Biennale. Between 2001 and 2007, he was assistant to the artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. In 2008, he moved to the Netherlands, where he was artist-in-residence at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam (2009–2011).