until Sunday August 28 2016

Fondazione Prada
T : +39 02 56 66 26 11
Largo Isarco 2
20139 Milan
Italy

L'image volée (The stolen image) is a group show curated by artist Thomas Demand, within an exhibition architecture designed by sculptor Manfred Pernice.
The exhibition includes more than 90 works produced by over 60 artists from 1820 through the present day. Demand's idea for the exhibition is to explore the way we all rely on pre-existing models, and how artists have always referred to existing imagery to make their own.

The exhibition presents three possible investigations: the physical appropriation of the object or its absence; theft as related to the image per se rather than the concrete object itself; and the act of stealing through the making of an image.

- The first section of the exhibition displays photographs, paintings and films in which the stolen or missing object becomes the scene or evidence of a crime. Included in this section are works that directly echo criminal ideas, such as Maurizio Cattelan's Senza titolo (1991), or Stolen Rug (1969) by Richard Artschwager...

-The second part of the exhibition analyzes the logic behind appropriation within the creative process....

-The final, subversive part of L'image volée deals with the production of images which, by their very nature, reveal hidden aspects on a private or public level. John Baldessari, in his installation Blue Line (Holbein) (1988), calls into question the role of the spectator. Sophie Calle, in the series The Hotel (1981), aims to combine the artistic and private realms in her research, revealing intimate details of strangers' lives...