For the second year, Serpentine Galleries collaborated with la Rinascente on a special commission for the department store’s eight storefront windows during the 2015 Salone del Mobile. From 14 to 20 April 2015 at la Rinascente, Piazza Duomo, 20121, Milan.
Pasted was a preview exhibition devised by design curator Libby Sellers to celebrate the launch of the Serpentine Galleries Wallpaper Collection by artists, architects and designers in May 2015.
This inaugural wallpaper collection comprised 13 patterns by seven contributors, including artists John Baldessari, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Rosemarie Trockel, Lawrence Weiner and Ai Weiwei, as well as architects SANAA and Toyo Ito.
The history of artists’ wallpapers is significant, with notable contributions by Matisse, Miro, Warhol and Calder. The installation at la Rinascente included three specially commissioned and filmed dances choreographed by Malgorzata Dzierzon that both incorporated the wallpapers while offering a conceptual response to them. Screened in the windows, the films complemented a series of site-specific installations by emerging set designers and paper sculptors, including Lydia Shirreff, Anna Lomax and Carrie Louise, that responded to the artists’ wallpapers.
Julia Peyton-Jones, Director, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Co-Director, Serpentine Galleries, said:
“The Serpentine continually explores how to present art, architecture and design in new ways. Pasted represents a unique opportunity to temporarily transform la Rinascente into an extension of our Galleries.”
Alberto Baldan, CEO of la Rinascente, said:
“Design, art and dance are an intriguing and extensive mix of different art forms that we are proud to host at la Rinascente in partnership with the Serpentine Galleries. Unconventional viewpoints and innovative worlds come together to create opportunities for growth for us all. It is amazing that our store windows will become an exhibition space where designer wallpaper becomes both art and the silent backdrop for moving projections. The quintessential element that completes this fusion is the creative input of young emerging talents who we aim to support as they build their careers. At la Rinascente, we are nearing our 150th anniversary and these artistic fusions have always been an integral part of our DNA.”
Pasted followed 2014’s In a State of Repair, an installation that expanded upon Martino Gamper’s Serpentine exhibition design is a state of mind. la Rinacente’s storefront windows were filled with different objects, including accessories, shoes, books, toys, electronics, clothing, chairs and bicycles, as they underwent varying processes of repair. Members of the public were invited to bring their broken objects to Gamper: the designer saw his installation as a way of allowing consumers to witness the highly skilled process of fixing things, which is ordinarily missed when goods are sent away for repair.
Online film credits
Choreographer: Malgorzata Dzierzon
Dancers: Eryck Brahmania, Antonette Dayrit, Thomasin Gulgec, Estela Merlos
Curator: Libby Sellers
Film Director: Flavia Rittner
Camera: Michael O’Halloran
Editor: Lawrence Huck
Prop construction: Almost Everything
Audio Visual Consultants: ADi Audiovisual
Filmed at SL Vision, London
Music: Audio Network
Wallpapers
Watercolour Flowers, SANAA
SANAA (est. 1995, Tokyo) is a multiple award-winning architectural firm founded in Tokyo, Japan, by architects Kazuyo Sejima (b. 1956-) and Ryue Nishizawa (b. 1966-).
Sail On, Lawrence Weiner
Lawrence Weiner (b. 1942, Bronx, New York) is one of the central figures in the formation of conceptual art in the 1960s. His work often takes the form of typographic texts, presenting art as language.
Golden Age, Ai Weiwei
Ai Weiwei (b. 1957, Beijing, China) is a Chinese contemporary artist and activist. Ai Weiwei’s visual art includes sculptural installations, woodworking, ceramics, video and photography.
