MILAN.- From 10 April to 29 June 2018, during the Milan Art Week and miart fair, Adolfo Pini Foundation presents Labyrinth, a site-specific project created by artist Jimmie Durham and curated by Gabi Scardi.

Jimmie Durham is one of the main artists of our time. He is an intellectual, essayist and poet, as well as a visual artist. Since the 1960s, his work has highlighted the system of conventions in which we live, in relation to our ideas, behaviours, history and its interpretations. Questioning these conventions means opening oneself to doubt, highlighting the multi-faceted nature of reality, allowing a multiplicity of possible visions to come to light.

Many of his works consist of arrangements of natural or industrial materials, grafted one onto the other. Such materials usually escape our attention or are too far below any of our value to be taken into account; therefore, these works stand as statements on the nature of things and their value. Some of Durham’s installations are made from found or created objects: these objects encompass everyday life, tell stories, and tell us who we are. Indeed, his activity is based on his will to give back to objects the possibility to show their own essence; deconstructing any superstructures surrounding them, and hence deconstructing the fundamental concepts of consumer culture.

This framework includes the artist’s focus on the theme of architecture, an element that has always been central to his work. Over the years, Durham has wanted to undermine the assertiveness of architecture, its monumentality. Object of his criticism is the sense of stability which makes an individual certain and peremptory, taking her away from doubt by bridling her critical thinking.

For Adolfo Pini Foundation, the artist has created a new, site-specific project, working on the existing space and its structure. In particular, Durham brings out what is normally "inside" the body of an architectural object; showing its materials, revealing what hides under its coating: "viscera", "entrails", what has been dismissed; that is, Innards. By extension, the artist addresses the question of what is given space to and what is hidden, what is said and what is omitted. The project combines a video from 1994, The Man Who Had A Beautiful House, linked to an idea of living that comes before and goes beyond the walls of a building. In the refined yet history-loaded space of the Foundation, through the theme of architecture, the artist faces once again the ideas of social and cultural constructs and the structures, conventions and categories that follow.

After presenting its first three site-specific projects, The Missing Link by Michele Gabriele, Materia prima by Lucia Leuci and Memory as Resistance by Nasan Tur, with this new exhibition, Fondazione Adolfo Pini continues its itinerary into contemporary art, under the guidance of Adrian Paci, with the aim of becoming a landmark for the promotion of the national and international young art scene in Milan.

Jimmie Durham (born 1940, U.S.) is an American-born sculptor, essayist and poet of Cherokee background, living and working in Europe. Leader of the American Indian Movement in the 1970s, he represented the International Indian Treaty Council in front of the United Nations. He defended the rights of artists through the Foundation of the Community of Artists and as editor of the periodical Art and Artists. He also brought together in a single coalition, the People's Alliance, several populations who were discriminated against in the United States and abroad. In 2017, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles hosted an important retrospective which then moved to Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2017), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2017-2018) and Remai Modern, Saskatoon, Canada (2018). Jimmie Durham took part in Documenta IX (1992) and various art biennials, including: Sharjah, UAE (2015); Venice (2012, 2005, 2003, 2001 and 1999); San Paolo (2010); Taipei (2012), Sydney (2004), Whitney (1993). His works were exhibited in numerous solo exhibitions at international institutions such as: National Museum of XXI Century Arts, Rome (2016); Serpentine Gallery, London (2015); Querini Stampalia Foundation, Venice (2015); Parasol Unit Foundation for Contemporary Art, London (2014); Museum Van Hedendaasge Kunst Antwerp (muhka), Antwerp (2012); Morra Greco Foundation, Palazzo Reale, Naples (2012); Portikus, Frankfurt (2010); Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris (mam/arc), Paris (2009); Donna Regina Madre Museum of Contemporary Art, Naples (2008); de Pury & Luxembourg, Zurich (2007); Kunstverein, Munich (1998); De Vleeshal, Middelburg, Netherlands (1995); Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, (1993). He took part in several group exhibitions at: MIT List Visual Arts Center, Massachusetts (2013); Center Georges Pompidou (mam-cci), Paris (2011); Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2010); S.M.A.K, Gent (2009); Modern Art Oxford, Oxford (2009); Reykjavík Art Museum - Kjarvalsstaðir, Reykjavik, Iceland (2008); MARCO, Museo de Arte Contemporánea de Vigo, Spain (2007) and others.