One of the great things about having friends in town, especially ones who used to live here, means they are usually keen to go to an exhibition or gallery with you.  So last Sunday my friend and I made our way to one of my favourite exhibition spaces in Milan, Hangar Bicocca, to see the first solo exhibition in Italy of Céline Condorelli.  The title of the exhibition “bau bau” is a play on words, relating to the Italian meaning of ‘bau bau’ as the barking of a dog and the German word ‘bau’ for construction.

The works which were presented by Condorelli, offered up physical encounters between the art and the viewer and we were encouraged at various points to sit and climb on specific pieces. This is one thing I particularly enjoyed, as I often find modern art quite hard to understand and to see the vision behind it, but getting stuck in and really experiencing the art definitely helps – and leaves you in fits of giggles when you get scared climbing back down the ladder – it was higher than it looks!

Built using several separate pieces of furniture, each piece becomes reliant on the others and therefore can’t stand alone. Once you are on the ladder, it acts as an extension to the human body.

My friend looking very at ease with the art….on the other hand, I, in her words, look like I have been put on the naughty step!

The exhibition featured installations as well as sculpture, video and text and it showed variations in light and time, black and white, daytime and night-time.

This gold curtain blows gently in the wind and separates dark from light, hot from cold, inside from out.

This was one of my favourite pieces, showing an Egyptian cotton field from around the 1930’s. It was enormous and really quite beautiful – and hid an archive containing material on the textile and rubber industry.

Whilst I didn’t understand the meaning of all of the installations, I learnt a lot and certainly had a lot of fun…plus before heading home we got frozen yoghurt! So all in all a successful Sunday!

Anna