Oscar Muñoz, among others

From 27 October 2021 to 30 January 2022, Palazzo Reale in Milan will host the exhibition Corpus Domini. From the glorified body to the ruins of the soul, curated by Francesca Alfano Miglietti.

111 works - installations, sculptures, drawings, paintings, video installations, and photographs - by 34 internationally recognized artists, some of them true icons of contemporary art, are on display for the first time in Italy to collectively capture the multiplicity of the ways in which the human being is represented.

The title refers to the disappearance of the 'real body' in favor of the 'body of the spectacle': from the Glorified Body - the body of awareness, of rebellion, of otherness - to the Contemporary Body – intended on the one hand as the body of our spectacle-based society, and on the other in its most poetic forms of exodus, of work, of the silent multitude.

“The boundary between real and imaginary is less and less recognizable, to the point of absorbing reality into a screen, as demonstrated by the obsessive presence of screens in our lives: the flat screens of televisions and computers, video games, smartphones”, writes the curator, who goes on to say, “The screen erases the distance between the viewer and the viewed, invites us to immerse ourselves in it, offers us a reality we can hold in our hand, but on which our hand has no grip”.

In 1,000 square meters of exhibition space, the installation unfolds as an analysis of the emergence of new forms of representation in the contemporary world, focusing on the historical passage from the living body that was the protagonist of Body Art to the reinvented body of Hyperrealism, on the changing aesthetic canons of representation, and on the powerful evocation of the individual through the traces that s/he leaves behind. A story intended to reflect on the crisis of sensory experience triggered by the advent of a culture that offers perfect bodies, modified bodies, bodies that have been re-conceived and re-produced, and thus essentially fake.

On display are works by AES+F, Janine Antoni, Yael Bartana, Zharko Basheski, Joseph Beuys, Christian Boltanski, Vlassis Caniaris, Chen Zhen, John De Andrea, Gino de Dominicis, Carole A. Feuerman, Franko B, Robert Gober, Antony Gormley, Duane Hanson, Alfredo Jaar, Kimsooja, Joseph Kosuth, Charles LeDray, Robert Longo, Urs Lüthi, Ibrahim Mahama, Fabio Mauri, Oscar Muñoz, Gina Pane, Marc Quinn, Carol Rama, Michal Rovner, Andres Serrano, Chiharu Shiota, Marc Sijan, Dayanita Singh, Sun Yuan e Peng Yu, Gavin Turk.

Many artists, museums, foundations, archives, galleries, and collectors worked together in Italy and abroad on the 'construction' of the exhibition, which offers a first re-examination of the concept of humanity after the shock and upheaval of Covid19.

From the works of the historical hyperrealists, we arrive at other narrative typologies where the body is evoked rather than represented, where it seems to have vanished, leaving only the traces of having been there; the human being is evoked through clothing, through the remnants of his work or nomadic existence, as well as through fragments of the body and its mutation which reflect the shifting social conditions of the contemporary world.

The exhibition is promoted and produced by Palazzo Reale, Municipality of Milan-Culture in collaboration with Marsilio Arte and Tenderstories.

Thanks for the technical sponsorship of the Grand Hotel et De Milan and Butterfly Transport and for the support to Humana People to People Italia and its team for having created bridges and having thought of a collaboration with a third sector body for the realization of the Boltanski's work.

A special section is dedicated to Lea Vergine: a sort of "private" room, created in collaboration with the Archivio Lea Vergine, in featuring works that have characterized her critical enquiry, along with books, documents, and photographs that testify to her invaluable and singular contribution to the field of Body Art, which remains an essential touchstone in the history of the representation of the body.

curated by Francesca Alfano Miglietti

Opening Times

Tuesday - Sunday 10-19.30, Thursdays closing at 22.30. Last admission one hour before closing time. Closed on Mondays. 
Holidays 1° nov 10-19:30; 7,8,26 dec; 24 e 31 dec 10-14:30 25 dec 14:30-18:30; 1° jan 14:30-19:30; 6 jan 10-22.30

Admission

Open € 16
Intero € 14
Ridotto € 12
Abb. Musei Lombardia € 10
Ridotto speciale € 6
Biglietto Famiglia: 1 o 2 adulti € 10 / ragazzi dai 6 ai 14 anni € 6