Watch Bubbles
Exhibition Past – NAVATE
15 September 2022 - 26 February 2023
Bruce Nauman
Neons Corridors Rooms
Curated by Roberta Tenconi and Vicente Todolí with Andrea Lissoni, Nicholas Serota, Leontine Coelewij, Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen and Katy Wan
Exhibition organized by Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, Tate Modern, London, and Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
One of the world’s most prominent living artists, Bruce Nauman (b. Fort Wayne, Indiana, 1941; lives and works in New Mexico) has contributed to writing the history of contemporary art since the mid-1960s, thanks to his pioneering research across a variety of media, including installation, video, sculpture, performance, photography, drawing, and sound. His art is distinguished by an interest in understanding the human experience and its conventions, as well as the inner workings of the psyche, which he investigates through the perception of the body, and interactions with space, time, and language. Nauman’s work also makes frequent use of wordplay, with which he explores alternative methods of communication.
Organized in collaboration with Tate Modern in London (7 October 2020—21 February 2021) and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (5 June—24 October 2021), the exhibition at Pirelli HangarBicocca focuses on Nauman’s spatial and architectural practice. In addition to several works already shown in London and Amsterdam, the exhibition includes a large number of his iconic corridors and rooms. Highlighting interrelations, developments and formal variations, for the first time the show explores his diverse experimentation in the areas of spatial experience and architectural scale, as well as the use of light, sound, language and video in this corpus of work.
Many of the most important international art institutions have exhibited Bruce Nauman’s work and solo shows, including Punta della Dogana, Venice (2021-2022); Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2021); Tate Modern, London (2020-2021); Museo Picasso Malaga (2019); Schaulager, Basel, MoMA Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1, New York (2018-2019); Philadelphia Museum of Art (2016); Fondation Cartier, Paris (2015); the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2008); “A Rose Has No Teeth” at Berkeley Art Museum, Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin, and the Menil Collection (2007-2008); and “Raw Materials” at Tate Modern, London (2004), as well as a major retrospective in 1993-1995 at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C. His first retrospective originated at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and international venues (1972-1974).
Nauman has also participated in numerous group shows and biennials worldwide, including the Venice Biennale (2015, 2013, 2007, 1999, 1987, 1980, and 1978) and documenta, Kassel (1992, 1982, 1977, 1972, and 1968). He has received numerous awards, including the Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts, Austria (2014); Centennial Medal Laureates, American Academy, Rome (2009); Beaux-Arts Magazine Art Awards: Best International Artist, Paris, Praemium Imperiale Prize for Visual Arts, Japan (2004); and Honorary Doctor of Arts, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia (2000); and the Wolf Foundation Prize in Arts (Sculpture), Israel (1993). In 2009 he represented the United States at the 53rd Venice Biennale, winning the Golden Lion for Best National Participation, and in 1999 he won the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 48th Venice Biennale.
The catalogue, published in conjunction with the exhibition, will present the most up to date studies on Nauman’s spatial and architectural research in its entirety, by analyzing and shedding light on his conceptual developments, formal variations and endless experimentations. Among the invited authors, Francesca Esmay, Gloria Sutton and Joan Simon.
“Neons Corridors Rooms” is also supported by TERRA Foundation for American Art.
