Ugo Rondinone
Nude

In the exhibition nude, Rondinone intervened in the Museum spaces and changed everything to create his characteristically otherworld, dreamlike environment. In this exhibition, seven life-sized nude figures inhabited the space, in peaceful repose, informally posed on the floor. Jointed like store-window mannequins, the figures are exquisitely detailed, as they are cast in wax directly from the human body. The sections of each figure are made of different earth colors, a mixture of wax and earth pigments. Naked and vulnerable, they seem to be resting after having performed. Rondinone himself says he chose dancers at the peak of their youth, bodies full of energy to accentuate the contradiction with their state of slumber.

But why are they resting? What from? Maybe from life? Did they ever have their own life? Rondinone often uses the human figure in his work in order to explore the processes of how cultural meaning is created and circulated through the language of figuration. His unsettling installations, invite the viewer to reflect on the transience of human life. In the context of the Museum of Cycladic Art, where the Cycladic figurines of the permanent collection remain for thousands of years hermetically closed, resting in enigmatic serenity, Rondinone’s resting figures invited the viewer to reflect on the evolution of the figuration through the centuries but also on how humanity deals with existential questions through time.