Prada Rong Zhai Shanghai: 'Mirroring: Lucio Fontana and Michelangelo Pistoletto'

Prada presents the exhibition 'Mirroring: Lucio Fontana and Michelangelo Pistoletto', with the support of Fondazione Prada. The exhibition will be on view from 20 March to 15 June 2025 at Prada Rong Zhai, the historic 1918 residence in Shanghai restored by Prada and reopened in October 2017. The curatorial vision by Sook-Kyung Lee, Director of the Whitworth, part of the University of Manchester, has been complemented by the scientific advice of Fondazione Lucio Fontana and Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto.  

For the first time Lucio Fontana (1899–1968) and Michelangelo Pistoletto (b. 1933), two prominent figures of the post-war Italian and international art scene, are put in dialogue with one another revealing their respective approaches to the matter and the conceptual dimension of art, their exploration of alternative performative spaces, and the presence of the metaphysical in each of their practices. The exhibition gathers 26 works from the 1950s onward which underline their search for new forms of expression and the rejection of materials, methods, and subjects perceived as the paradigm of the past. The show explores their approaches to overcome painting restrictions and use materials drawn from the world beyond fine art. In 1948 Fontana created the 'Concetto spaziale (Spatial Concept)', and in 1961 Pistoletto realised 'Quadro specchiante (Mirror Painting)' the spatio-temporal work. The three-dimensionality of their artistic objects is another focus of the exhibition, accompanied by a reflection on the performative aspect of their practices.

As stated by curator Sook-Kyung Lee, “Fontana’s and Pistoletto’s interests in rejecting the existing paradigm of art and seeking new forms of expression persisted in their respective oeuvres. This exhibition aims to create a dialogue between the pair, emphasizing the direction they shared in their production while alluding to inevitable differences in their practices.”

Source: Galleria Continua