Artists Alex Da Corte
Date 14.07.22 - 08.01.23
Curator Mathias Ussing Seeberg
Venue Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
All images Courtesy by the artist and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Malle Madsen
Presenting the first in-depth exhibition of Alex Da Corte’s work at a European museum, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art is following up on its strong engagement in the artist. In 2014, Louisiana acquired its first two works by the artist, the installation Delirium I (2014) and the film Chelsea Hotel No. 2 (2010). In 2019, the museum’s collection was supplemented with the installation Rubber Pencil Devil (2019), which was shown at that year’s Venice Biennial.
The exhibition brings together new and old works (the oldest is from 2003) in an all-embracing scenography. Adding colour to almost every surface in Louisiana’s West Wing, Da Corte makes it impossible for the viewer to keep a safe distance. The artist’s body of work implies an idea of identity as unfixed and continuously performed using costumes, props and everything we consume. In Da Corte’s rendition of life, every day is Halloween.
As the exhibition title suggests, Mr. Remember, which is a play on misremember, memory is a key concept for Da Corte. Through remembrance, the past joins the present, and provides paths for negotiating the future.
The exhibition is the first European survey of Da Corte’s work, focusing on the last decade, when the artist has amped up the formal complexity of his work. Da Corte has also made several ambitious new works for the occasion, while custom-designing the exhibition to fit every detail of the museum. Moreover, the sculpture As Long as the Sun Lasts is displayed on the museum’s Calder Terrace.
Da Corte’s work spans a variety of media, centring on sculpture, video and installation. The artist employs an array of different materials and references – from low-cost, mass-produced objects to high-end design, from children’s TV to the masters of art history, from French poetry to American pop music.
While some (or all) of the references may be familiar, Da Corte’s treatment gives them an edge, producing a sense of alienation or displacement. Shuttling between light-hearted and dark, his work strikes a deeply emotional note.
