The Haunted House of Fondazione Prada in Milan hosts a permanent installation conceived by Robert Gober and two works by Louise Bourgeois.
On the higher floors of the building, Gober, whose work explores sexuality, relationships, nature, politics, and religion, combines historical art works such as Untitled (1993–1994), an oversize Farina box on display on the second floor, with new ones such as Original Model for Top Floor of the Haunted House (2014).
By using everyday elements the artist creates hybrid objects: Arms and Legs Wallpaper (1995–2015) refers to a recurring pattern within the artist’s practice, while portions of architecture – such as Corner Door and Doorframe (2014–2015) or the bronze drain Untitled (2014–2015) – are here dislocated and therefore estranged, despite containing elements familiar to everybody.
On the first floor, Gober’s works, which reverberate connections to childhood and to body parts, find a counterpart in Louise Bourgeois’s Cell (Clothes) (1996) – a circular construction made of adjoining doors and treated iron gates, peopled by sculptures combined together with personal objects originally belonging to Bourgeois herself – and Single III (1996), a fabric sculpture.
Like the whole Fondazione Prada site, the Haunted House is part of a former distillery complex dating back to the 1910s. Without transforming the original volumes, the architecture project has preserved and enhanced the building by reinforcing the structure and gilding its external surface.
Robert Gober, Corner Door and Doorframe, 2014-2015. Photo by Attilio Maranzano. Courtesy of Fondazione Prada
Robert Gober, Creek Bed, 2014-2015. Photo by Attilio Maranzano. Courtesy of Fondazione Prada
Robert Gober, Corner Door and Doorframe, 2014-2015. Photo by Attilio Maranzano. Courtesy Fondazione Prada
Louise Bourgeois, Cell (Clothes), 1996. Photo by Attilio Maranzano. Courtesy of Fondazione Prada
Louise Bourgeois, Single III, 1996. Photo by Attilio Maranzano. Courtesy of Fondazione Prada
Discover: www.fondazioneprada.org
