CITY - Issue 60 - (Page 64)

CITIZENS: Massimiliano Gioni New’s A itude By Meredith Fisher Young curator Massimiliano Gioni brings a well-seasoned perspective to the New Museum and its upcoming triennial Wc hen assimiliano Gioni moved to New York in 1999, he didn’t plan on becoming a cu ato . But 10 yea s late , as Di ecto of Special Exhibitions at the New Museum, he is at the fo ef ont of the contempo a y a t wo ld and about to mount “ ounge Than Jesus,” ontempo the New Museum’s the ﬁ st majo inte national t iennial and New o k’s only inte national exhibition devoted to eme ging a tists. s most sto ies go, Gioni discove ed he was inte ested in a t at an ea ly age and by the time he went to college, he knew he would study a t histo y. “The p ofession of being a cu ato wasn’t eally known at that point,” ecalls Gioni, who pu sued the path of a t c iticism a e his studies and landed a job as an edito at Flash t, the inﬂuential Milan-based magazine. “I knew I wanted to be involved with a t and a tists, and w iting allowed me to do that, almost as an accomplice.” The t ansition f om c itic to cu ato began in 1999 when Gioni moved to New o k to be the U.S edito fo Flash and began wo king with Mau izio Cattelan and li Subotnick. “I met Mau izio in 1998 when I inte viewed him fo Flash t and li was the fi st pe son I met the fi st evening I went out in New o k.” They fi st collabo ated on the contempo a y publication se ies “Cha ley,” and then at The W ong Galle y, an exhibition space in Chelsea. Both the magazine and the a t space g ew o ganically out of the thei desi e to expe iment, to push the bounda ies of a tists and to c eate a new way of looking at cu ating. “Ha old Szeemann, the fathe of mode n cu ating, once said ‘cu ating is like w iting poems in space’ – you have to be able to w ite and exp ess thoughts th ough the actual a t.” His big b eak fo space w iting came in 200 when he was invited to be the a tistic di ecto at the T ussa di Foundation, which had decided to abandon its pe manent home at the Palazzo Ma ina alla Scala in favo of becoming a floating foundation. “I was p esented with the challenge of wo king without an exhibition space and with a mig ato y institution that only exists when we find a new space.” The lack of space was ha dly an empty offe fo Gioni, who was d awn to the idea of c eating tempo a y installations th oughout Milan and diffusing contempo a y a t ac oss the city. He installed Swiss a tist U s Fische ’s “House of B ead” at the Instituto dei Ciechi, a p estigious a chitectu al complex that had neve befo e opened to the public fo a contempo a y a t exhibition, and p esented Ma tin C eed’s “I Like Things” in the Palazzo dell’ enga io in Piazza del Duomo in Milan (including C eed’s iconic neon sign eading “Eve ything is Going to Be l ight” on its façade). His wo k at T ussa di led to othe inte national gigs like co-cu ating Manifesta 5 in San Sebastian (2004) and the Be lin Biennial (2006). While wo king in Be lin he quoted his co-cu ato , Mau izio Cattelan as saying, “cu ating a biennial is like pointing a gun at you head and smiling at the same time, and waiting fo someone else to come and pull the t igge ” But Gioni doesn’t have a slow death wish, athe just the opposite. “What Mau izio was saying is that if you take the ules as they a e then you a e just expecting the c itics to come and pull the t igge , but if you einvent things then it is an inte esting expe ience.” In Be lin, he e-invented what a biennial meant, counte ing the t aditional deﬁ nition of an event that happens once eve y two yea s, and instead mounting exhibits that lasted fo two yea s. Othe aspects of the Be lin expe ience we e a magazine collabo ation and even an illegal f anchise of Gagosian galle y. “We wanted to c eate an exhibition that could happen in many diﬀe ent moments in space and time,” ecalls Gionni, “you don’t need a F ank Geh y to have a museum - the new model fo an institution is that of a phantom.” nd while he continues to abide by this p inciple in the wo k he does fo T ussa di, his position at the New Museum has him ope ating out of a building The New Museum is far from institutional, and it is still very young, so it is able to work and change at a much faster speed. It is in a constant state of being and rethinking itself. PORTRAITS BY DOROTHY HONG

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of CITY - Issue 60

CITY - Issue 60 Contents Our Friends Action Wanted City Moment In Rogue Luscious Life Temporary Contemporary Fast Food Diary Leona Naess Matthew Stone Henrik V Ibskov Massimiliano Nogioni Young Bloods Keys to the Ferarri Fine Craftsmanship The New Frontier Conscious Evolution New World Order Spiral Casual Fridays Where to Buy It Cityscape

CITY - Issue 60

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