Purple Art
[December 13 2022]
“VB94” by Vanessa Beecroft
“VB94”, an exhibition by Vanessa Beecroft from 8 December 2022 – 8 January 2023 at the Regional Gallery of Sicily “Palazzo Abatellis” in Palermo in collaboration with Amici dei Musei Siciliani.
The exhibition opened to the public from Thursday 8 December with a performance that took place in the same regional gallery, accompanying the exhibition of unpublished sculptures created by the artist. A group of models and a series of previously unseen sculptures made by the artist in her studio in Los Angeles, are presented as a connection between past and present, stasis and movement. VB94 unfolds between the courtyard and the rooms dedicated to the museum’s sculpture collection, on Palazzo Abatellis’ ground floor. Dressed in clothes created with the avant-garde intent to emulate the museum set-up, the performers evoke the women that lived in this palace centuries ago. The aim of the performance is to pay tribute to the collection in a dialogue with contemporary art. The interpreters are women from Palermo, some belong to the local aristocracy, while others are inhabitants of the city’s historic center, some are first or second-generation immigrants. The artist’s sculptures, all representing female heads, have been modeled in clay and reproduced in ceramic, bronze and wax. The bases of the sculptures have been also designed by the artist and made with refurbished wood. Vanessa Beecroft returns to Palermo for the second time with a project that combines art historical memory with personal artistic experience.
Polaroids by Vanessa Beecroft, VB94, 2022 Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo ©️ Vanessa Beecrofr, 2022
