Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

At the end of the exhibition, from 30 March to 6 November, the work will be donated by the artist to the Museo del Novecento and will become part of the Milanese civic collections - The map of the twentieth century at the Monumental - Photo gallery

Milan, March 30 2022 – In conjunction with Art week 2022, the Municipality of Milan, the Museo del Novecento and the Monumental Cemetery present Maurizio Cattelan's project "Ninna nanna". From 30 March to 6 November 2022, "Lullaby", a work by Maurizio Cattelan created in 1994, will be set up in the room of the Crematorium Temple of the Monumental Cemetery. At the end of the exhibition the work, owned by Cattelan, will be donated to the city, becoming part of the permanent collection of the Museo del Novecento.

On 27 July 1993 at 23pm a mafia car bomb exploded in Milan. In the massacre in Via Palestro, five people lost their lives - firefighters Carlo La Catena, Sergio Pasotto and Stefano Picerno, municipal police officer Alessandro Ferrari and Moussafir Drissalle - and the external wall of the Art Pavilion was razed to the ground contemporary, designed by Ignazio Gardella and opened in 34.

In the days following the attack, Maurizio Cattelan recovered the rubble of the building from a landfill and in the following months created the work "Lullaby", which was exhibited in 1994 at the same time as the artist's first solo exhibition abroad at the Laure Genillard Gallery in London and in a group show at the Musée d'Art moderni de la Ville de Paris.

In the London version, part of the debris is collected in a blue travel bag, similar to the one used to collect demolition material, but at the same time reminiscent of the bags used in hospitals to transport contaminated linen; in the Parisian version, today presented in Milan for the first time, the remains of the Pac are instead collected in 40 white plastic bags stored on two pallets.

Particularly significant for the history of Milan and for the Civic Museums, the work, thanks to the collaboration between the Department of Culture and the Department of Civic and General Services, is today presented for the first time in Milan. Repurchased by the artist precisely to be able to donate it to the city of Milan, Lullaby will be donated to the Museo del Novecento.

"I thank Maurizio Cattelan for Lullaby, for giving it to Milan, but also and above all for having created it and for what this work represents - states the Mayor Giuseppe Sala -. Lullaby tells a painful story for our city: the cowardly mafia attack in via Palestro. Milan does not forget and in the place dedicated to remembrance, our Monumentale, today with Lullaby honors the memory of those who lost their lives in the PAC massacre. Art has that extraordinary gift of provoking reflections and grasping profound and new, every time you admire it. And Cattelan's work does so with great concreteness".

"Lullaby – underlines the Councilor for Culture Tommaso Sacchi – is an extremely topical work that underlines the importance of memory as an instrument of knowledge for an increasingly aware society. The work of recovering the rubble of the PAC therefore goes beyond of its undoubted artistic value, amplified by the installation in such a powerfully evocative place as the Monumentale, and takes on an even stronger meaning thanks to the donation of the work to the Museo del Novecento. Thanks to the sensitivity and generosity of Maurizio Cattelan, in fact, Lullaby will become part of the artistic and historical heritage of the Milanese civic collections."

"The exhibition of the work at the Monumental Cemetery – declares the councilor for civic services Gaia Romani – is particularly significant for the artistic and symbolic value of this place. The house where the illustrious Milanese rest, where the righteous and those who sacrificed their lives for their ideals. For all these reasons we believe the choice to pay homage to the five people who lost their lives in the attack on Via Palestro right here is precious. A warning not to forget. Remember, 29 years after that terrible mafia massacre, is a civic and institutional duty that we owe to the families of the victims and to the city of Milan which, today like yesterday, continues to be committed to the fight against the mafia".

"Memory is often aided by objects, they allow us not to forget with the passing of time – states Maurizio Cattelan –. The rubble of Lullaby belongs to Milan, which is why I thought it was a duty to return the work to the city and to its care of the Milanese".

The initiative, which also aims to enhance the most important places of culture in the Lombardy capital, also involves the creation of a map that will guide the visitor on a journey to discover the "Twentieth Century at the Monumental", through 14 monuments, created by some of the most famous artists of the XNUMXth century, from Wildt to Martini, from Fontana to Remo Bianco, right up to the work of Cattelan.

Maurizio Cattelan, born in Padua in 1960, is one of the most appreciated and controversial artists in the art world.

His works, which take shape from people, situations or events of the reality that involves us, constitute the fruit of an irreverent operation towards art and institutions and underline the paradoxes of man and society, reflecting on political and cultural scenarios with depth and insight.

His solo exhibitions have been presented by internationally renowned institutions, including Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan (2021); UCCA, Center for Contemporary art, Beijing, (2021); Blenheim Palace, Woodstock (2019); Monnaie de Paris (2016); Solomon R. Guggenheim museum, New York (2016 and 2011); Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel (2013); Royal Palace, Milan (2010); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2008); MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (2007); Nicola Trussardi Foundation, Milan (2004); Muse d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2004); MOCA Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2003); Ludwig museum, Cologne (2003); Museum of Contemporary art, Chicago (2002).

Cattelan has also taken part in important collective exhibitions, including Yokohama Triennale (2017 and 2001); Venice Biennale (2011, 2009, 2003, 2001, 1999, 1997 and 1993); Gwangju Biennial (2010); Biennial of Sydney (2008); Whitney Biennial (2004); New York, Seville Biennial (2004); Biennale de Lyon (2003); Skulptur Projekte Münster (1997).

Finalist of the Guggenheim Hugo Boss Prize (2000), the artist received the Rome Quadrennial Prize (2009), the Arnold-Bode Prize, Kassel (2005), the honorary degree in Sociology from the University of Trento ( 2004) and the title of Honorary Professor in Sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara (2018).