PRESS RELEASE

Gregor Schneider’s new exhibition in Naples

At Fondazione Morra Greco in December a major exhibition dedicated to one of the most visionary and controversial artists of our time

Naples – Fondazione Morra Greco is elated to announce Bauen und Töten (“Building and Killing”), the new exhibition dedicated to acclaimed German artist Gregor Schneider, opening on Thursday, December 19, 2024.

Spanning from early performative and photographic endeavors to more recent artworks, Bauen und Töten ultimately circles back to the artist’s legendary Gesamtkunstwek, the Haus u r in Rheydt, Germany — an ongoing work started in 1985 – in order to explore the boundaries drawn by the possibilities and impossibilities of artistic representation, as well as the tension between collective and personal memory – all motifs remarkably crucial to Schneider’s practice. The event also stands as a pivotal moment for Fondazione Morra Greco, which inaugurated its activities back in 2006 – eighteen years ago – with an exhibition by Schneider himself.

“Collaborating with Gregor Schneider nearly two decades later is an opportunity to engage, once again, with an artistic language that unhinges certainties and challenges conventions,” said Maurizio Morra Greco, President of the Foundation. “Bauen und Töten is not just an exhibition, it is a milestone in our journey as a cultural institution, the start of a new chapter we will embark on with revived enthusiasm, furthermore proving our ongoing commitment to the city of Naples and contemporary art.”

Places, memory
The exhibition traces the most significant steps in Schneider’s career: from Haus u r, winner of the Golden Lion at the 2001 Venice Biennale, to later works such as the series It’s All Rheydt, Kolkata (2011) – a study on the boundary between art and life through the encounter between modernist western culture and Hindu religion – or videos from Sunny Demise, Tagebau Hambach (2022), chronicling the dystopian reality of several villages near Rheydt, depopulated due to brown coal mining. The latter body of works is also connected to the origins of Haus u r, since Schneider recycled materials from the dying districts for the artwork in the 1980s.

Displayed on several levels of Palazzo Caracciolo di Avellino, headquarters of Fondazione Morra Greco located at the heart of Naples’ historical center, the exhibition is designed to blend in with its surroundings – the 18th-century painted walls of the first floor and the stucco and painting ornaments on the second – that add new layers to the itinerary and interrogate the material and symbolic implications of the places we inhabit and make our memories in.

The exhibition investigates the interconnection between personal and collective memory, exploring the symbolic meanings attached to the places we inhabit. In a complex historical moment, Bauen und Töten highlights the dramatic relevance of Schneider’s work and the pioneering value of his reflections on memory as an antidote against the perpetuation of new cultural and collective traumas.

Cultural synergies in support of the exhibition
Bauen und Töten, which relies on the IFA support (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen / Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations), represents for Fondazione Morra Greco both the opportunity to pay homage to Schneider’s longstanding and fruitful career and the first juncture in a period of intense ferment, with the institution currently working – alongside activities for the ongoing education and public programmes – on the 2025 exhibition program and the next EDI Global Forum.

The opening day of December 19th is part of a broader cultural dialogue developed in synergy with Madre · museo d’arte contemporanea Donnaregina, which on the same date will inaugurate the exhibition Gli anni (The Years). This will create the opportunity to experience an itinerary of contemporary culture in the heart of Naples.

The project is co-financed with funds from Piano Strategico Cultura e Turismo 2024/2025 - Progetto Global Forum Mostre d’arte contemporanea EDI 2024.

Artist bio
Gregor Schneider, born in Rheydt in 1969, still lives in Rheydt. Over the course of forty years, Gregor Schneider has created a body of work that touches upon some of society’s sorest spots. At the very beginning of his career he started developing the concept of an artistic practice that devours its own products, thereby questioning the subjection of art to economic necessity.
Beginning with his first museum exhibition in 1994 at the Haus Lange Museum in Krefeld, Schneider has since exhibited in prestigious institutions, including Kunsthalle Bern, Portikus Frankfurt, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Museum of Contemporary Art of Los Angeles, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Bonn, among others. Films from Haus u r (1985-ongoing) have been exhibited at the Tate Gallery in London and the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.
In 2001 he won the Golden Lion at the 49th Venice Biennale. In Italy he has had solo exhibitions at Museo Macro, 2008; Fondazione Volume, 2010; Art City Bologna, 2021. His artworks are also part of relevant private collections, such as Collezione Morra Greco in Naples and Giacomo Mazzari’s collection in Milan.

Fondazione Morra Greco
Fondazione Morra Greco promotes, supports and fosters contemporary culture, enhancing the international and local vision of emerging and established artists. Fondazione hosts and cooperates on major projects on a local, national and international scale, including EDI Global Forum. It also boasts a rich multidisciplinary program of exhibitions and cultural and educational activities that contribute to consolidating its vocation as a place to create, design and produce contemporary culture in all its forms.

Opening hours
Exhibition opening: 12.19.2024 // Exhibition closing: 02.22.2025
Opening: Thursday 12.19.2024, 5 pm to 8 pm, free admission
Location: Fondazione Morra Greco, Largo Proprio di Avellino, 17, 80138 Napoli (NA)
Opening hours: Thursday–Saturday, 10 am to 5:30 pm, free admission

Press enquiries
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Communications office - comunicazione@fondazionemorragreco.com
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