Juan Muñoz - The Double Bind and Around, Milan

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This  Juan Muñoz exhibition came to my attention when I was looking for a program on a Saturday in Milan.  The photo shown in the The Guardian's article were figures looked like Chinese or Asian.  The figures, description of the exhibition and short life of the artist were like a magnet drawing me to visit it.Juan Muñoz is a contemporary Spanish artist (storyteller) after the Franco dictatorship.  He died suddenly at the age of 47, year 2001.

Juan Muñoz's exhibition of Double Bind and Around is held at HangerBicocca in Milan, from 9 Apr to 23 August 2015. It contains 15 installations and over 100 sculpted figures. The entrance is placed with the artist's Waste Land.  A small bronze man sitting demurely on a shelf, gazing at people, interacting with them with a background of patterned surface. The yellow, black and gray floor created depth and distance.



Around the central part sits another small figure, Ventriloquist Looking into a Double Interior.  I don't know the artist's intention.  But I felt a dash of loneliness on spot.

My attention caught with this scene, Conversation Piece. It's felt like a concubine looking at a loving couple from far. It is watching its lover kissing, caring another person.  It felt sorrow and could only remain a third party, no right and no say.


From another perspective of the loving couple are two figures.  One tied with a string struggling to escape from the control of another figure pulling the string.  It's like the flighting between human beings. So real and so cruel!


Walking a few steps across the floor were figures like acrobats dangling from ropes clenching in their jaws.  One has fallen and laughs, eyes bulging. Another hangs by his foot.  More figures stand around as if they are waiting for something to happen.  But nothing is happening.  Only viewers move around, in between to appreciate the art and become part of the art.
The exhibition centres on his most significant work, Double Bind.  It was an installation for the Turbine Hall at Tate Modern in London in 2001.



Two elevators rose and descended.  Lift-shafts were populated by the artist's sculpted figures one level up. Viewers see them from below with a special perspective.


Beyond Double Bind is another huge space with a terrific 1930s spiral staircase in one corner, up to the roof height. Many Times - Fifty figures mill about on the floor.  It's like stepping into a place with people chatting.  They look amiable but viewers are never sure if the smiles are genuine.  The grey colour is cool.  It conveys a sense of distance between the figures.




I like the exhibition.   It opens a new horizon of art for me.
Location: Bicocca, Milan, Italy

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