Magdalena Abakanowicz: Crowd and Individual / Fondazione Giorgio Cini

Crowd and Individual is a large installation at Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice (Italy) by the Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz. Abakanowicz is known for her works of crowds of individuals. In Venice, she presents the work “Crowd and Individual”, which consists of 110 humanoid burlap figures, mostly headless, marching inexorably towards a single animal sculpture set opposite them (the so-called Mutant). The individuals are mainly textile busts, empty shells like tree trunks, portrayed in the act of walking.

Running parallel to the Venice Art Biennale 2015, the installation has been curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, and produced by Beck & Eggeling (Düsseldorf) and Sigifredo di Canossa in collaboration with the Fondazione Giorgio Cini. The exhibition runs until 2nd August 2015.

Magdalena Abakanowicz Crowds have been shown in various installations and configurations all around the world. The travelling Retrospective Exhibition in USA and Canada (1982) was staged in venues such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, the Musée d’Art Contemporain, Montréal, and the Städel Museum in Frankfurt (1989).

Magdalena Abakanowicz won the São Paulo Art Biennial Grand Prize in 1965 and in the course of her long career has received many international awards from institutions such as the Royal College of Art, London, the Rhode Island School of Design, New York, the Pratt Institute Graduate School of Art, New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Fine Arts Schools of Lodz and Poznan, and the Akademie der Künste of both Berlin and Dresden.

Magdalena Abakanowicz: Crowd and Individual / Fondazione Giorgio Cini. Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice (Italy). Reception, May 7, 2015.

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