The residence
“My work is always site specific, I’m interested in the site and location of a work and so on. I always visit the site in order to draw inspiration for ideas of my work.
My first impression of the Cloister was marked by the full natural light coming from the transparent covering. The light coming from above seems like a shower of light coming from the Chapel’s roof. In fact, the dome of the neighboring chapel is visible from insiede the cloister.
In that moment I recalled the painting by Gustav Klimt, Danae, in which she receives a golden shower from Zeus. The materials used in my installation are vegetable wood baskets used by people at the open market. These are very ordinary materials from everyday life.” Tadashi Kawamata
The Shawer (2017) by Luca ArtioliFondazione Made in Cloister
Kawamata's installation at the Cloister emphasizes the aesthetic, functional and symbolic characteristics of architecture that run the risk of weakening the work's aesthetic value due to their aura, or as a result of becoming familiar.
The Shawer (2017) by Luca ArtioliFondazione Made in Cloister
His intervention allows us to observe under different light places and buildings to which we have become so accustomed that we overlook their very presence, despite their powerful beauty.
The artist
Tadashi Kawamata’s monumental installations are not designed to be immovable and can be considered as a nomadic trace that creates archaic structures that can be inhabited with natural elements retrieved among the local wastes. in the case of this exhibition, the materials are wooden boxes used in fruit and vegetables markets.
Kawamata has imposed himself at the attentions of the international critics with its ephemeral environmental installations, many of wich are huge, always respectful af the environment that welcomes them.
The Shower (2017) by Riccardo PiccirilloFondazione Made in Cloister
Kawamata's respect for the locations he works on leads him to consider his structures as natural non-invasive superimpositions that respond to momentary needs and that can be easily removed without causing damage to the environment.
Tadashi Kawamata (2017) by Riccardo PiccirilloFondazione Made in Cloister
"The middle space is empty. People come and stand inside the shower of baskets. It feels as though they are inside of Danae's body. Perhaps when people visit the Cloister they will find further inspiration from this installation"
Tadashi Kawamata
Understanding social art
With the installation made specifically for the space of the cloister of Santa Caterina a Formiello, titled “The Shower”, the artist wanted to recreate the feeling he had when he firste entered into the cloister and was hit by a sort of waterfall of light that seemed to come from the church dome. Presented in many countries around the world, Kawamata’s installations are part of a new way of understanding social art, an art that does not arise to be commercialized, allowig everyone to see it and that can alsobe benefited from the inside.
The Shawer (2017) by Luca ArtioliFondazione Made in Cloister
Kawamata is deeply intrested in the phenomena of urban and social change and in the innovative processes which generate it. Themes including urban regeneration, the reconnection of peripheral and demoted areas of the city, the cultural and social growth of their inhabitants, and the integration and emancipation og migrants are all central to his artistic production.
The inclusion of the territory
In the realization of its insallations Kawamata also involves locals, whose active participation contributes beyond the mere execution.While works are both conceived and studied by the artist, it is thanks to the negotiation with the locals that an artwork enters and becames part of their lives. In other words, Kawamata's works find their raison d'etre in the very collaboration of those who will materially create it with him, using materials that the environment itself provides them.
The Shawer (2017) by Riccardo PiccirilloFondazione Made in Cloister
One of Kawamata's preconditions is that his main interest is not the final product of his work, but rather the creative process through which it arises. This process involves the active partecipation of the locals: students, artisans and residents of the area.
Tadashi Kawamata installing The Shawer (2017) by Riccardo PiccirilloFondazione Made in Cloister
We put together a team comprised of ten young students and inhabitants of the Porta Capuana area with whom the artist was able to develop an extraordinary creative process- a daily performance through which the installation gradually took shape.
Photo Credit: Riccardo Piccirillo
Luca Artioli
