John Bock: The Next Quasi-Complex at Fondazione Prada, July 18 – September 24, 2018

“Conceived by the German artist John Bock (Gribbohm, 1965; lives and works in Berlin) for the Podium exhibition space, the project reflects his own practice that freely employs performative elements with audience engagement, installation, environment among others. His performances, called “lectures” by the artist himself, parody academic presentations and didactic methods. They are enacted in environments crafted from everyday objects, found materials, detritus, furniture etc., arranged to create a deliberately absurdist, or illogical universe. During his live events, visitors are involved in an experiential and participatory relationship with the artist.

For this new project, Bock transforms the ground floor of the Podium into his own eccentric and surreal world, a theatre of the absurd intermingliming dark comedy with disciplines such as philosophy, economics, music, fashion as well as fragments of daily life, altogether overcoming the conventions of contemporary art.

At the center of this new exhibition project are two large installations from the Collezione Prada: the mobile stage of When I’m looking into the Goat Cheese Baiser (2001) and the living room of Lütte mit Rucola (2006). Incorporating new experimental architectures, fragmentary walls, make-shift structures and a selection of existing artworks, the project takes the form of a circular path leaving a small plaza in its midst.” — Fondazione Prada