‘Paraventi: Folding Screens from the 17th to 21st Centuries’ is the name of the extensive exhibition curated by Nicholas Cullinan which will animate the spaces of the Prada Foundation in Milan from 26 October to 22 February. The exhibition investigates the history and interprets the meanings of these timeless objects, retracing the trajectories of mutual contamination between East and West, the hybridization processes between different art forms and functions, the collaborations between designers and artists and, finally, the creation of unpublished works.
As Nicholas Cullinan explains: “Painting or sculpture? Art or furnishing accessory? Utilitarian or ornamental element? Decorative, functional, architectural or theatrical? This exhibition examines with an innovative approach the questions and paradoxes surrounding the history of screens, a history of cultural migration (from East to West), of hybridization (between different art forms and functions) and of what is hidden and revealed. Our research will reveal how this history and its manifestation in the present coincide with the history of objects liminality and liminality itself, in a process of overcoming the rigid distinctions and hierarchies between the different disciplines of art and architecture, interior decoration and design”.
Two complementary exhibitions will also open on November 3, organized by Prada with the support of Fondazione Prada at Prada Rong Zhai in Shanghai and Prada Aoyama Tokyo, which will delve into contemporary interpretations of screens in oriental contexts. The exhibition project in Milan, conceived by the Sanaa architecture studio, founded by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, brings together seventy screens in the spaces of the Podium. Both works of great historical value and more recent works from international museums and private collections are included, as well as a selection of new creations specially commissioned for this project by more than fifteen international artists. On the ground floor of the Podium, curvilinear and transparent Plexiglas walls, alternating with sinuous curtains, evoke the shapes of these objects, creating a series of spaces characterized by different lighting conditions. Inside these environments, visitors will be able to meet the various thematic groups and engage with a fluid exhibition itinerary thanks to the transparency of the dividing structures.
On the upper floor the exhibition represents the entire history of the screens, presented in chronological order and arranged on shaped pedestals that emphasize their forms, in homage to the innovative museum displays of the Masp of San Paolo, created by Lina Bo Bardi, and to the work of Sanaa for the Louvre-Lens museum. On the ground floor of the Podium, however, an introductory section groups together three Chinese and Japanese screens from the 17th and 18th centuries depicting naval battles and views from above to investigate the intrinsic ambiguity and transnational nature of these objects.
With a group of recent and previously unpublished works by Tony Cokes, Cao Fei, Shuang Li, Joan Jonas, Tiffany Sia and Wu Tsang, the exhibition reveals how a seemingly timeless object like the screen can become a means to project a layering of images and multi-screen effects with the pervasive use of digital technologies. Another section is dedicated to one of the functions of the screen: to hide, protect and therefore create an intimate, private and secret dimension within the domestic environment.
Historic works such as Three-fold Screen with embroidered panels depicting heroines (The Legend of the Good Women) (ca. 1860) by William Morris and Elizabeth Burden and Konku (1982) by William N. Copley are juxtaposed with contemporary screens by artists such as Lisa Brice , Anthea Hamilton, Lorna Simpson and Carrie Mae Weems, who address themes such as seduction and a sense of modesty through an unusual perspective. Queer aesthetics are at the center of another series of works that transform this everyday object into an admittedly transgressive decorative element. A culturally disruptive story is told through works such as the screen made by Duncan Grant of the Bloomsbury Group of Charleston (Sussex, United Kingdom) for the Omega Workshop, a rare 1929 screen by Francis Bacon World of Cats (1966), the work of British actor, writer and collagist Kenneth Halliwell, as well as creations by contemporary artists such as Kai Althoff, Marc-Camille Chaimowicz and Francesco Vezzoli.
In contrast to the synchronic approach adopted on the ground floor, the upper floor follows a diachronic logic. The chronological sequence allows us to reconstruct the historical evolution of this artistic and decorative object, from its oriental origins and the dialogues and contaminations with Western traditions up to the innovative contribution made by designers and artists in the 20th and 21st centuries.
The Chinese and Japanese screens made between the 17th and 19th centuries gave rise to a series of transformations and metamorphoses which in this exhibition is represented by the creations, among others, of masters of design and architecture such as Alvar Aalto, Charles Ray Eames, Le Corbusier, Josef Hoffmann and Jean Prouvé; from the avant-garde experiments of Giacomo Balla, René Magritte and Pablo Picasso; from the works of contemporary artists, including Marlene Dumas, Mona Hatoum, Yves Klein, Sol LeWitt, Betye Saar, Luc Tuymans and from those of younger artists such as Kamrooz Aram, Atelier EB (Beca Lipscombe &Lucy McKenzie) and Małgorzata Mirga-Tas .