'True Value' & 'T.T.T.- Template Temples of Tenacity'

The exhibitions True Value and T.T.T. - Template Temples of Tenacity, dedicated respectively to the work of Theaster Gates and Nástio Mosquito inaugurate tonight at Fondazione Prada in Milan.

The first explores the aesthetics of black culture through everyday elements. According to Gates, in fact, common objects are able to convey a deep knoledge, inherent not only in their material aspect, but evocative of the experiences related to their use. True Value (2016), the installation which gives the name to the whole exhibition, is nothing but a faithful reconstruction of a hardware store, full of decontextualized tools with respect to their place of origin.

As part of the exhibition, the spaces of the Foundation will also host a series of public meetings in the form of debates and readings, the first of which will take place on Thursday, July 7 at 6 pm and will see the participation of the artist alongside Elvira Dyangani Ose and Thelma Golden, Director and Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York.

The second exhibition features instead the work of Angolan artist Nástio Mosquito. After having abandoned his job as a film director, he became famous for his provocative performances in which he simultaneously plays the roles of actor, singer and presenter.

For the Prada Foundation he has created three new projects developed in collaboration with international artists, which will extend to the ground floor of the Podium, transformed into a contemporary temple, to the Cinema and to the outdoor area of the museum.

The first performances of I Make Love To You. You Make Love To Me. Let Love Have Sex With The Both Of Us (Part 1 - The Gregorian Gospel Vomit), a collaboration with musician Dijf Sanders, artist Chilala Moco and the Golden Guys chorus, will be held during tonight’s opening and in the evenings of July 7 and 8, from 6.30 to 7.30 pm.

In September Mosquito will also present Synchronicity Is My Bitch: The Cinematic Experience (2016), an editing of sound and images in which the artist has assembled excerpts from his latest album – Gatuno, Eimigrante & Pai de Familia (2016) – with fragments of a series of African films, documentaries and local television programmes produced in the past twenty years, which will be screened in the Foundation’s Cinema.