Opening: 3 October 2024, 7pm
Diego Marcon’s work draws upon different cinematic vocabularies from diverse genres including musicals, melodrama, horror and slapstick comedy. His uncanny, singular imagery employs various technical devices such as robotics, prosthetics and CGI. Words, sounds and gestures contribute to the troubling uncertainty or ambiguity that underpins Marcon’s work.
La Gola (2024) is structured by a series of letters between two correspondents, Gianni and Rossana. Over the course of eight letters, Gianni describes the successive courses of an exquisite banquet, while Rossana gives an account of the progressive decline of her mother’s health. The two characters are played by hyperrealistic mannequins, that appear motionless with their eyes modelled and animated in CGI. Their voices are accompanied by an original score composed by Federico Chiari. The music was performed on a Pietro Corna organ and recorded at the Cattedrale di Sant’Alessandro Martire in Bergamo. Drawing upon themes familiar from art history, Marcon playfully combines graphic accounts of cuisine and disease against an elaborate and energetic score, using language, voices and music to create dramatic tension. Produced in partnership with Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève and Kunstverein in Hamburg, its presentation is Marcon’s first solo exhibition in Austria.
This exhibition is accompanied by a new book, jointly published by the three institutions with essays by Charlie Fox, Gianni Revello and Sofia Silva.
A limited edition 12” red vinyl record of the film score from La Gola (2024) is available from Kunsthalle Wien’s shop. All proceeds support Kunsthalle Wien’s programme.
Diego Marcon (b. 1985, Busto Arsizio, Italy) has held solo exhibitions at Kunstverein in Hamburg (2024); Kunsthalle Basel; Centro Pecci, Prato; Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan (all 2023); Museo Madre, Naples (2021); Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore/LASALLE, Singapore (2019); and Triennale Milano, Milan (2018).
His work has also been presented within numerous group surveys including Nebula, organised by Fondazione In Between Art Film for the 60th Venice Biennale; the Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement 2024, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève (both 2024); and the 59th Venice Biennale (2022). Marcon’s films have also been screened at Tate Modern, London (2024); Cannes Film Festival; the Viennale, Vienna (both 2021); and the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2018).
Marcon lives and works in Milan.
La Gola was commissioned by Kunsthalle Wien, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève for BIM’24, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Sadie Coles HQ, London and Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York; with support from the Fonds d’art contemporain de la Ville de Genève (FMAC) and Fonds cantonal d’art contemporain de Genève (FCAC).
The exhibition at Kunsthalle Wien is realized with the kind support of the Italian Cultural Institute in Vienna. The support is provided on the occasion of the Giornata del Contemporaneo.
The accompanying publication is supported by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity within the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council programme (2024).