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www.fondazioneprada.org

Fondazione Prada
Via Fogazzaro 36
20135 Milan, ITALY
tel: +39 02 550 28 498

Fondazione Prada is pleased to announce its next show, dedicated to the work of American artist Tom Sachs. The exhibition, which will remain open from 6 April to 15 June 2006, will present works made from 1995 on, as well as two large installations conceived specially for the 1,500 square metres of the Fondazione Space in Via Fogazzaro 36 in Milan.

The first installation, "The Island" (2006), is a large-scale (1:7) reconstruction of the command area on the bridge of an aircraft carrier, called an "island," which combines the control tower and other important functions on the ship. For the other installation, "The Whale" (2006), a life-size reconstruction of a blue whale, Tom Sachs took his inspiration from the reproduction of a whale in the hall of aquatic life at the American Museum of Natural History, in New York.

The two large works and the works around it, from the "police" "Car" to "Delinquency Chamber," offer a panorama of the themes inspiring Sachs's work, which are elaborated in reproductions of objects in a caustic parody of the unbridled consumerism, the wild rush for luxury goods, and the aggressiveness associated with contemporary society. They are objects that represent the violence, sex, and instruments of war that have penetrated our day-to-day lives, camouflaged by slogans and seductive wrappings.

Tom Sachs takes his inspiration from the collective American imagination, borrowing his subjects from among the status symbols of mass culture: weapons, fast food, hip hop, surfing, and skateboarding, and he mixes them with the symbols of American wealth that sees in luxury, conformism, and designer labels a reinforcement of their elite social status.

In this manipulation of allusions, Sachs ironically reinterprets the pistol used by police, icon of the exercise of control and repression used in American society, hand crafting a model in a reassuring sky-blue, signed with the mark of a famous jeweller. Similarly, a tray with a hamburger and fries ostentatiously displays a fashion label. Sachs also recreates rifles, military vehicles, and other objects that represent the exploitation of human labour, power, violence, control.

Tom Sachs (New York, 1966) studied at Bennington College in Vermont and at the Architectural Association of London. His works have been shown in many important museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Bohen Foundation, all in New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin; the Hamburger Kunsthalle in Hamburg; and the Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst in Oslo, where a monograph show is still on view.

The exhibition is curated by Germano Celant.