La gabbia (The Cage) – part of the solo show Lo spettro di Malthus (The Specter of Malthus), curated by Matteo Lucchetti at MA*GA in Gallarate – is a dematerialized horse box reduced to its essential elements, that addresses the theme of domestication as a form of exploitation of bodies. By entering the horse box, visitors are asked to complete the ghostly form of a draft horse, of which there are only a few anatomical components and a block of horse salt engraved with the words Happy Days by Samuel Beckett. Bringing one’s gaze closer to the blinkers provides access to a monocular viewer that immerses the viewer in a theatrical diorama, where a landscape of flora and fauna populated by heads of state was composed by the artist solely from reproductions of images extrapolated from hundreds of banknotes from around the world. An image that chronicles the savage anthropization of the planet through the capitalist conquest of spaces and resources in an all-powerful idea of profit expansion, the only outcome of which is to make other species, and ourselves, prisoners of a cage-shaped model of life.
The Cage
2019
Iron and wood elements, straw, blinkers and earmuffs, theatrical diorama, five prints on glass, LED light, engraved salt block, gold patinated horseshoe, horsetail, 265 x 300 x 300 cm. Installation view MA*GA, Gallarate. Photo by Renato Ghiazza. Courtesy: the artist; MA*GA, Gallarate
The installation La gabbia (The Cage), part of the solo show Lo spettro di Malthus (The Specter of Malthus), is a project by the artist Marzia Migliora promoted by MA*GA – Gallarate Art Museum, curated by Matteo Lucchetti, created thanks to the support of Italian Council (6. Edition, 2019), a contemporary art promotion program of the Direzione Generale Creatività Contemporanea del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali e per il Turismo (General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism)
