L'indiano in giardino

project by Alek O. and Santo Tolone
in collaboration with Isola Art Center
Opening 29th October, 2009, 7pm
October 29th – November 1st, 2009
Starting point Bar La Cantinetta, P.le Archinto, Milan


l'indiano in giardino

with Pedro Barateiro, Dafne Boggeri, Marco Colombaioni, Camilla Candida Donzella, Alessandro Di Giampietro, Lucie Fontaine, Francesco Fossati, Matteo Rubbi, Manuel Scano, Mauro Vignando and Zhou Tao

A redskin indian is in a black-lined limousine. He’s naked, and the touch of leather on his body makes him shiver; a cloud of breath rising from his mouth mists the car windows. The indian pops out of the sun-roof and escapes. He next appears in a small courtyard clogged with abandoned neon signs. The indian slowly turns around, looks up and a geometric patch of sky shines over his head. He climbs the narrow walls around him, clinging with his hands and pushing with his feet, and goes away. Idly descending the stairs of a mezzanine workshop the indian appears once again: he’s blocking the entrance to the adjacent room. He smiles, his arms crossed: he’s forcing bystanders to coexist in a very small space, a single flight of stairs. At the crack of dawn, in a square surrounded by silent buildings, a bar with a bunch of red tables scattered on the sidewalk becomes the playroom we fell short of not having. The indian awaits, sitting, skimming the game’s wooden tokens. He leans on the wall his plume-clad nape and looks straight in the eyes of his playmate. Then, shaking his head, he rubs his legs to get rid of the cold. He gets up and runs away, stopping only in front of the window of a luxury car dealer, full of stretched-out silhouettes. Its gates are open, and reveal a whole carpet of cars, tightly cramped side by side. A redskin indian is in a black-lined limousine.
The indian is the subject of an innocent yet reckless fantasy abruptly entering our everyday; the spaces he appears in are anything but random.
The places’ disposition, however, appears unforeseeable: they could well be the displaced rooms of a blown-up museum. They concentrate around a bunch of streets, scattered in the Isola neighborhood, which the show’s two promoters – alongside other artists, some involved in this project – have already worked with.
The explosion of a hypothetical museum could also be the best metaphor to describe the new approach chosen for L’indiano in giardino. After disposing of the curator’s role, all that’s left is the organizational strength and the works of the eleven artists involved, some of which have never before worked together.
Manuela Ravasio

Opening hours
5 pm – 8 pm

Various seats, Isola, Milan
Piazza Minniti – newspaper kiosk
Via dal Verme, 2 – courtyard
Piazzale Archinto – bar
Via Pollaiuolo, 8 – garage
Via Lambertenghi, 25 – studio

www.isolartcenter.org
Special thanks to Autoservizi Mariani, Bar La Cantinetta, Edicola Ambrosini, Falegnameria Clerici and Insegne Longoni.