Jeremy Deller. Sacrilege

Jeremy Deller. Sacrilege

CityLife Park, Milan
April 12 – 15, 2018

Abstract

The Fondazione Nicola Trussardi invited the celebrated British artist Jeremy Deller – winner of the 2004 Turner Prize – to realize his first solo project in collaboration with an Italian institution. With Sacrilege, Deller brings to the heart of the CityLife sculpture park in Milan a giant inflatable installation that is a life-sized reconstruction of the archeological site of Stonehenge – a historic monument that is an icon of British culture and heritage, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1986.

Jeremy Deller defines himself as an “instigator of social interventions”: his works are often characterized by audience participation, his sculptures are social experiences in which performances, videos, and installations become places of exchange and aggregation. This was also the starting point for Sacrilege, originally created for the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art, and later displayed in London on the occasion of the 2012 Olympics.

With the sense of humor that characterizes many of his projects, Deller transforms the Stonehenge monument into a giant inflatable toy for children, reproducing it in plastic and turning it into a funfair attraction 35 meters in diameter; the public is thus called upon to interact with the installation, to climb onto it, and to jump and play within it.