Massimo Grimaldi Emergency's Paediatric Centre in Port Sudan Supported by MAXXI

dimensione ambiente/dimensions variable

Massimo Grimaldi lives and works in Milan, where he attended the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, studying under Alberto Garutti. His work, for which he uses various languages, including photography, video, installation, performance, and digital materials, poses questions that take a critical view of the art system, the role of the artist in modern society, and the seductive power of art objects. Emergency’s Paediatric Centre in Port Sudan Supported by MAXXI was designed for the space outside the museum and is the project for which the artist won the “MAXXI duepercento” competition in 2009, the theme of which was the creation of a permanent work that would apply the Italian “2% for public art” law. The installation was a video projection of photographs taken during various trips to Port Sudan that document the building of Emergency’s children’s hospital there. As provided for in the plan for the project, Massimo Grimaldi donated to the humanitarian organization 92% of the award money for the construction of the center. The photos projected on the exterior wall of the museum were taken during various phases of the construction of the hospital and also show daily life in the surrounding area and portraits of the community for which the center was being built. This projection, which was deliberately independent of the museum’s opening hours and canonical spaces, was also directed at those who just happened to be passing by, in keeping with Grimaldi’s ideas about the purpose of art. The architecture of the museum generated a new building, the hospital, creating a comparison between wealthy, industrialized nations and developing countries and between the expressive language of Zaha Hadid’s museum architecture and that of the building designed by TAMassociati, suggesting a subtle link between their respective functions.

Yes

S. Chiodi, Una sensibile differenza. Conversazioni con artisti italiani di oggi, Rome 2006, pp. 136-151. M. Avagnina, M. Guccione, S. La Pergola (eds.), MAXXI materia grigia: il racconto della costruzione, Milan 2010, pp. 212-215. S. Chiodi, D. Dardi (eds.), Spazio. Dalle collezioni di Arte e di Architettura del MAXXI, exhibition catalogue (Rome, MAXXI-Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo), Milan 2010, p. 233. A. Rabottini (ed.), Massimo Grimaldi: fade in, exhibition catalogue (Genoa, Museo d’arte contemporanea Villa Croce), Milan 2012. L. Cherubini, G. Di Pietrantonio, C. Piccoli (eds.), Paesaggio italiano: Simone Berti, Massimo Grimaldi, Riccardo Beretta, Diego Perrone, Patrizio Di Massimo, Yuri Ancarani, Miami 2014.

Foto Patrizia Tocci

MAXXIduepercento

Installation