Last years Biennale of Sydney was fantastic, wasn’t it? Absolutely brimming with exciting contemporary art. I was lucky enough during the period it was showing in 2008 to visit many of the venues. My favourite artwork was – literally – held at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and that artwork was Maurizio Cattelan’s Novecento. The artwork proved to be quite a controversial piece; constantly being referred to in the media, with mixed reviews.
I feel that Novecento relates to this weeks topic of representation, because the meaning of the work does not expose itself until you research it further.
“…This work makes reference to the 1976 film 1900 (pronounced Novecento in Italian) in which director Bernardo Bertolucci explores Italy’s painful passage to modernity. As in the film, which presents fascism and communism in opposition, Cattelan expresses a sense of blocked energy. A saddled horse is a means of transportation and mobility; here it is rendered immobile. His work is a eulogy for the end of the great revolutionary impulses that characterised the twentieth century.”*
* http://www.bos2008.com/app/biennale/artist/61
I had no idea of the representative element of the artwork until I looked into it, after viewing it. This, I am happy to say, still did not take away any of the awe and pleasure I experienced seeing the artwork. Before reading up on the artwork, I did think that it was representative of lost freedom, freedom being the horse, and lost being its death and the hanging.
This artwork stirred me emotionally. The eye’s were so sad…
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