CatherineSULLIVAN
Triangle of Need
Gió Marconi, Milan
30.01.–19.03.2009
IT Catherine Sullivan
Triangle of Need

3Inaugurazione: 29 Gennaio 2009,  18.00 - 21.00
30 gennaio - 19 marzo 2009        
martedì - sabato, 10.30-12.30; 15.30-19.00



Il 29 gennaio Giò Marconi presenterà la terza mostra personale di Catherine Sullivan nei locali del piano interrato della galleria.

L'artista americana è conosciuta per i suoi lavori video che esplorano le convenzioni della performance e dell'interpretazione attoriale. Catherine Sullivan usa una vasta quantità di riferimenti storico-culturali che vanno dai film noir, al cinema d'avanguardia, all'arte contemporanea, alla storia del teatro e attraverso questi esplora la tensione che si instaura tra gli attori, i loro ruoli e il pubblico. Il suo lavoro è distinto non solo dall'espansione dei propri interessi intellettuali, ma anche da un approccio estetico unico.

Nell'ambito della mostra verrà presentata la videoinstallazione “Triangle of Need”. Attraverso vari monitor e videoproiezioni Catherine Sullivan orchestra un multiforme insieme di idee e performers, intessendo un variegato racconto sull'evoluzione, il classismo, il benessere, la povertà, le iniquità e le ingiustizie dell'economia globale. Il film si rivela come una sorta di ricerca concettuale sul culto della superiorità che continua a dominare la nostra autopercezione come specie.

“Triangle of Need” è presentata come un’istallazione multichannel con schermi al plasma sincronizzatisu diverse scene che si dispiegano tra il Vizcaya Museum di Miami e un anonimo appartamento di Chicago. A completare l'installazione, un film in 16 mm che mostra il pattinatore Rohene Ward mentre esegue una serie di complicati spin, frammentato dal documentario di una ragazza che celebra il suo quiceañera (il 15esimo compleanno) nei giardini del Vizcaya.
Gli attori impegnati impersonano ruoli differenti e alcuni di essi sono recitati da tutti performers: ciò provoca una sorta di dissoluzione dell'identificazione tra personaggio e attore.

Per questo lavoro, l'artista si è avvalsa della collaborazione di numerosi esperti: fra cui il coreografo Dylan Skybrook, il pattinatore Rohene Ward e Sean Griffin, musicista e assiduo collaboratore della Sullivan che ha elaborato un complesso linguaggio performativo chiamato Mousterian, preso da alcune teorie sul linguaggio degli uomini di Neanderthal.  Ad essi si aggiunge anche l'attore/regista nigeriano Kunle Afolayan che fa da contrappunto allo stile e alla regia di Sullivan.

Triangle of Need diventa così una meditazione allegorica sull'accumulo e la deprivazione, sulle classi sociali e le norme di comportamento, l'evoluzione umana e la civilizzazione, costituendo così una sorta di “apparato imperfetto” per capire il mondo e le sue numerose contingenze storico sociali.


Catherine Sullivan è nata a Los Angeles, nel 1968, vive e lavora a Los Angeles e a Berlino.
Tra le mostre personali: "Triangle of need", Galerie Christian Nagel, Cologne, 2008; " Triangle of need", Metro pictures, New York, 2008; "Triangle of Need", Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, Miami, 2008; "Triangle of Need," Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2007; "The Chittendens", Nichido contemporary art, Tokyo, 2007; "Triangle of need", A Foundation, Liverpool, 2007; "The Chittendens", Giò Marconi, Milano, 2006; "The Chittendens", Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels, 2006; "Mnemonic Devices (Theatre Works, 2004)", Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles, 2005; "The Chittendens", Metro Pictures Gallery, New York, 2005; "The Chittendens", Tate Modern, London, 2005; "The Chittendens", Seccession, Vienna, 2005; "Catherine Sullivan - 'Tis Pity She's a Fluxus Whore", Magasin d'en face, Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble, 2005; Kunsthalle, Zürich, 2005; "Ice Floes of Franz Joseph Land. House of Pieter/House of Alex (and some crappy details)", Braunshweig Kunstverein, 2004; "Getting out of the 20th Alive", NAK, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein Aachen Manifestation, Germany, 2004; "Ice Floes of Franz Joseph Land", Giò Marconi, Milano, 2004; "Tis Pity She's a Fluxus Whore", Galerie Catherine Bastide, Art Statement Basel, 2003; "’Tis Pity She's a Fluxus Whore", Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut; Metro Pictures, New York, 2003; Centre d'Art Contemporain Fri-Art, Kunsthalle, Fribourg, 2003; "Five Economies (Big Hunt/Little Hunt)", Renassaince Society at the University of Chigago, UCLA Armand Hammer Museum, Rubell Family Foundation, Miami, 2002; "Unspoken Evil III - Rites of Ascension and Obscurity", Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels, 2001; "Gestus Maximus (Gold Standard), Galerie Christian Nagel, Cologne, 2001.
EN Catherine Sullivan
Triangle of Need

Opening: Thursday 29th January 2008,  6 - 9 PM
January 30 - March 19, 2009
From Tuesday to Saturday, 10.30-12.30AM; 3-7PM



On Thursday, the 29th of November, Gió Marconi will present the solo exhibition of Catherine Sullivan at the gallery's groundfloor.

The American artist is known for her theatre and video work that explores the conventions of the performance and role-playing. She uses a large range of historical and cultural references as film noir, avant-garde cinema, contemporary art and history of theatre , and through them she explores  the tension between actors, the roles played and the public.
Sullivan's work is a sort of expansion of her intellectual interests, not less a unique aesthetical approach.

The exhibition will show a multichannel video installation Triangle of Need. On three monitors, edited on a seven channels projection, Catherine Sullivan orchestrates a complex set, made of ideas and performers, to contrive a variegate narration about evolution, class, wealth and poverty, inequalities and injustice in the global economy.

The video installation unfolds between Vizcaya Museum in Miami, an anonymous apartment in Chicago. The building of Vizcaya Museum once was the estate of the industrialist James Deering who divided himself between Miami, place of holidays and fun, and Chicago, city where his factory was. In these two contrasting sites, Sullivan places two situations: one involves an industrialist who tries to force the last remaining members of a hominid species to reproduce and a second one is a series of reconstructions of scenes from catalogue of Pathescope Films, the company from which Deering ordered silent film for screening in Vizcaya.

The actors take on mutiple roles, and certain roles are played by alla performers: the result is the dissolution of stable identification between characters and actors.
Triangle of Need is presented as a multichannel installation: three synchronized channels from the Chicago set  and four  synchronized channel from Miami section presented as contiguos projections. The installation is completed by a 16mm film projection that shows the figure skater Rohene Ward executing a serie of spin, interspersed  with the documentary of young girls celebrating their quinceañera (15th birthday) in the gardens of Vizcaya.

For this work the artist has been helped by some illustrious collaborators: the coreographer Dylan Skybrook, the skater Rohene Ward and Sean Griffin, a musician who elaborated a complex performative language called 'Mousterian' taken form theories of Neanderthal speech. Add to them Niegerian actor/director Kunle Afolayan, who makes a counterpoint to Sullivan's direction with his commercially based practice.

Triangle of Needs becomes an allegorical meditation on accumulation and deprivation, social class, and behavioural norms, and human evolution and civilization, constituting an "imperfect apparatus" for understanding the world and its numerous historical and social contingencies.


Catherine Sullivan was born in  Los Angeles, California in 1968, lives and works between Los Angeles and Berlin.
She obtained the  BFA at California Institute of Arts, Valencia (1992 e il  MFA from the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, California (1997). Solo shows: "Triangle of need", Galerie Christian Nagel, Cologne, 2008;" Triangle of need", Metro pictures, New York, 2008; Triangle of Need," Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, 2007; "Triangle of need" A Foundation, Liverpool, 2007; "Triangle of need", The Vizcaya Museum, Miami, 2007; "The chittendens", Nichido contemporary art, Tokyo, 2007; 'The chittendens', Giò Marconi, Milano, 2006; "The chittendens", Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels, 2006; "Mnemonic Devices", Richard Telles Fine Art, Los Angeles, 2005, "The chittendens", Metro Pictures Gallery, New York, 2005; "The chittendens", Tate Modern, London, 2005; "The chittendens", Seccession, Vienna, 2005; "Catherine Sullivan - 'Tis Pity She's a Fluxus Whore, Magasin d'en face, Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble, 2005 e Kunsthalle, Zürich, 2005; "Ice Floes of Franz Joseph Land. House of Pieter/House of Alex (and some crappy details), Braunshweig Kunstverein, 2004; "Getting out of the 20th Alive", NAK, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein Aachen Manifestation, 2004;; "Ice Floes of Franz Joseph Land", Giò Marconi, Milano, 2004; "Tis Pity She's a Fluxus Whore", Galerie Catherine Bastide, Art Statement Basel, 2003; "Tis Pity She's a Fluxus Whore", Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut, 2003; Metro Pictures, New York, 2003; Centre d'Art Contemporain Fri-Art, Kunsthalle, Fribourg, 2003; "Five Economies (Big Hunt/Little Hunt), Renassaince Society at the University of Chigago, UCLA Armand Hammer Museum, Rubell Family Foundation, Miami, 2002; "Unspoken Evil III - Rites of Ascension and Obscurity", Galerie Catherine Bastide, Brussels, 2001; "Gestus Maximus (Gold Standard)", Galerie Christian Nagel, Cologne, 2001.
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