The program MY30YEARS – Coherency in Diversity, curated by critic Lóránd Hegyi at Galleria Fumagalli, continues with its sixth exhibition. With the aim of celebrating Annamaria Maggi’s 30-year career at the helm of the gallery, it has been conceived to stimulate new interpretations of the paradigms of contemporary art in the light of unprecedented comparisons between twelve artists followed or represented by the gallery.
Questioning the Functionality, through the joint display of works by Mattia Bosco (Milan, 1976), Chiara Lecca (Modigliana, 1977) and Dennis Oppenheim (Electric City, Washington, 1938 – New York, 2011), presents a double query. Firstly, whether a work of art has functionality (in general), or if it is only the result of associations and comparison with other objects; secondly, the question challenges the specific works on view – on their own functionality and how this functionality manifests.
While Mattia Bosco and Chiara Lecca present works with strong sensual effects which seem to maximally exploit material qualities to activate the viewer’s imagination, the works by Dennis Oppenheim – coming from the period in which he experimented with Land Art and Body Art – are lacking any kind of theatrical spectacularism and are the result of an objective observation of the human body and its interaction with the surrounding space.

The artist focuses on the functionality of the body, not understood as a neutral medium, but characterized by certain uncontrollability and irregularity, given by the changing elements of the context in which it moves. The body actions are neither exploited, objectified, nor mechanical but instead maintain their own spontaneous character.
Chiara Lecca’s works evoke artifacts or architectural conformations in which organic and inorganic elements hybridize, giving life to sensual and provocative forms. These works, made with unusual materials such as furs and taxidermy animal bladders, are exhibited in a theatrical, almost exhibitionistic way, and manifest as passive yet desirable objects, to be used without a defined function. Therefore, they destabilize and question any potential functionality.
Mattia Bosco’s investigations also focus on questioning the functionality of the artwork, with particular attention to different states of matter and their types of functionality that are determined by the metamorphosis or the change of context. In fact, the possible changes in the context of things and the subtle interventions on the materials engender a permanent redefinition of the functionality and interpretation of the object.

Launched in 2021 and running until 2023, the exhibition series MY30YEARS – Coherency in Diversity consists of 8 exhibitions and involves 12 of the gallery’s artists. Each exhibition jointly presents three artists (each of them involved in the series twice), whose works interact on specific themes, identified as recurring in contemporary art. The program aims to overcome certain artistic categorizations and suggest a free interpretation of languages and the interrelationships between artists coming from different generations and contexts.

Read the press release →

Mattia Bosco →

Chiara Lecca→

Dennis Oppenheim →