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Chris Burden

The Heart: Open or Closed

February 13–March 27, 2010
Rome

Installation view Artwork © Chris Burden

Installation view

Artwork © Chris Burden

Installation view Artwork © Chris Burden

Installation view

Artwork © Chris Burden

Installation view Artwork © Chris Burden

Installation view

Artwork © Chris Burden

Installation view Artwork © Chris Burden

Installation view

Artwork © Chris Burden

Installation view Artwork © Chris Burden

Installation view

Artwork © Chris Burden

Works Exhibited

Chris Burden, Nomadic Folly, 2001 (detail) Wood platform, 4 cloth and metal umbrellas, woven carpets, braided ropes and pillows, silken fabrics, glass and metal lamps, and CD player and speakers, 11 ½ × 20 × 20 feet (3.5 × 6.1 × 6.1 m)© Chris Burden

Chris Burden, Nomadic Folly, 2001 (detail)

Wood platform, 4 cloth and metal umbrellas, woven carpets, braided ropes and pillows, silken fabrics, glass and metal lamps, and CD player and speakers, 11 ½ × 20 × 20 feet (3.5 × 6.1 × 6.1 m)
© Chris Burden

Chris Burden, Dreamer's Folly, 2010 (detail) Cast iron gazebos and lace fabric, 136 × 164 × 223 inches (345.4 × 416.6 × 566.4 cm)© Chris Burden

Chris Burden, Dreamer's Folly, 2010 (detail)

Cast iron gazebos and lace fabric, 136 × 164 × 223 inches (345.4 × 416.6 × 566.4 cm)
© Chris Burden

About

Gagosian is pleased to present Chris Burden’s first exhibition in Rome in more than thirty years.

Burden continues his interest in built structures and the role they play in reflecting cultures. In three individual but interrelated works, he turns his attention to the beauty and metaphorical possibilities of the architectural folly.

At one end of the gallery Burden has recreated Nomadic Folly (2001). First presented at the Istanbul Biennial in 2001, this installation is his fantasy of a cultivated nomad’s tent. The structure is comprised of a large wooden deck made of Turkish cypress and four huge umbrellas. Visitors can relax and linger in this tentlike structure, replete with opulent handmade carpets, braided ropes, hanging glass and metal lamps, and rich, sensuous wedding fabrics embroidered with sparkling threads and traditional patterns. Soothing, seductive Turkish-Armenian music spills from the tent’s interior. At the other end of the gallery is Dreamer’s Folly (2010), a series of three highly ornamental cast-iron gazebos reminiscent of those common to traditional English gardens. The three gazebos have been reconfigured to form one structure. Lacy “tree of life” fabrics are draped around the exterior to complete a beautiful sanctuary in which to dream.

But the calm and beauty of this environment is violently disrupted by the video projection The Rant (2006), where Burden’s goggled face appears in close-up and many times larger than life, hovering just above water. In this performance he is a ranting xenophobic preacher delivering a short, intense message in French (with Italian subtitles), an impassion rejection of the Other.

Like all of Burden’s exhibitions, The Heart: Open or Closed resonates with ambiguity on many levels. This disarmingly beautiful installation may be his most tender and humanistic to date, pointing to the beauty in the heart of two different cultures and the hate that can divide them.

Gagosian è lieta di annunciare la prima mostra di Chris Burden a Roma in oltre trenta anni.

In The Heart: Open or Closed l’artista prosegue la sua ricerca sulle costruzioni architettoniche e sul ruolo che queste ricoprono nel riflettere differenti culture. In tre opere individuali ma in relazione fra loro, l’artista esplora l’estetica e le possibilità metaforiche di architetture stravaganti.

Da un lato della sala ovale Burden ricrea Nomadic Folly (2001). Presentata per la prima volta nel settembre 2001 alla Settima Biennale Internazionale di Istanbul, questa installazione è la sua interpretazione fantastica di una sofisticata tenda nomade. La struttura è composta da un’ampia piattaforma in legno di cipresso e da quattro grandi ombrelloni. I visitatori possono soffermarsi e rilassarsi sotto la tenda rivestita di sontuosi tappeti e decorata da corde intrecciate, lampade e oggetti in vetro e metallo, ricche stoffe tradizionali ricamate con fili scintillanti. Una dolce e seducente musica turco-armena si diffonde dall’interno.

Nell’altro lato della galleria si erge il nuovo lavoro Dreamer’s Folly (2010), una serie di tre ornati gazebi in ghisa che ricordano l’architettura tipica di un bucolico belvedere in un giardino all’inglese. I tre gazebi sono disposti in modo da creare uno spazio unico in cui drappeggi e ricami raffiguranti l’Albero della Vita, offrono al visitatore un magnifico santuario in cui sognare.

La calma e la bellezza di entrambe le strutture è interrotta dalla video proiezione The Rant (2006). In questo lavoro un primo piano ingrandito del volto di Burden emerge appena sopra il pelo dell’acqua per declamare, nel ruolo di un predicatore xenofobo, un breve ma intenso messaggio in francese di un appassionato rifiuto dell’Altro.

Come tutte le mostre di Burden, The Heart: Open or Closed suggerisce numerose ambiguità. La grazia disarmante di questa installazione, forse una delle opere più sensibili ed umane di Burden, trasmette la bellezza di due culture differenti e l’odio che può dividerle.

Image of American Artist, Yayoi Shionoiri, Sydney Stutterheim

In Conversation
American Artist, Yayoi Shionoiri, and Sydney Stutterheim on Poetic Practical: The Unrealized Work of Chris Burden

Join Gagosian to celebrate the publication of Poetic Practical: The Unrealized Work of Chris Burden with a conversation between American Artist, Yayoi Shionoiri, and Sydney Stutterheim presented at the Kitchen, New York. Considering the book’s sustained examination of sixty-seven projects that remained incomplete at the time of Burden’s death in 2015, the trio discuss the various ways that an artist’s work and legacy live on beyond their lifetime.

Photograph of the installation process of an unrealized performance by Chris Burden at the Newport Harbor Art Museum, California, 1974. Photo: Brian Forrest, courtesy Michael Auping

At the Edge
Chris Burden: Prelude to a Lost Performance

Michael Auping tells the Quarterly’s Alison McDonald about the preparations for a performance by Chris Burden at the Newport Harbor Art Museum in Southern California in 1974—and the event’s abrupt cancellation—providing a glimpse into the mindset of a young, aggressive, and ambitious artist in the early stages of his career.

Takashi Murakami cover and Andreas Gursky cover for Gagosian Quarterly, Summer 2022 magazine

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Summer 2022

The Summer 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, with two different covers—featuring Takashi Murakami’s 108 Bonnō MURAKAMI.FLOWERS (2022) and Andreas Gursky’s V & R II (2022).

Chris Burden, model for the installation Xanadu as proposed to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2008. Photo: Joel Searles

Chris Burden: Poetic Practical

A new publication exploring the work that Chris Burden conceived but left unrealized delves into his archive to present sixty-seven visionary projects that reveal the aspirations of this formidable artist. The book’s editors, Sydney Stutterheim and Andie Trainer, discuss its development with Yayoi Shionoiri, executive director of the Chris Burden Estate.

Chris Burden: Big Wrench

Gagosian Quarterly Films
Chris Burden: Big Wrench

From January 23 to February 21, 2019, Gagosian Quarterly presented a special online screening of Chris Burden’s 1980 video Big Wrench.

Big Wrench

Big Wrench

Sydney Stutterheim looks at the brief but feverish obsession behind this 1980 video by Chris Burden.