Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre presents TOILETPAPER’S Largest Immersive Exhibition to Date in India
MUMBAI, July 11, 2023 — The Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre presents RUN AS SLOW AS YOU CAN by TOILETPAPER, an immersive and unique visual art exhibition that makes its India debut. After the successful opening of the Cultural Centre’s inaugural visual art exhibit, Sangam/Confluence, this will be the second show presented within their art space.
The exhibition showcases the work of the renowned Italian creative studio and image-based magazine TOILETPAPER, founded by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari in 2010. This show is curated by Mafalda Millies and Roya Sachs of TRIADIC and marks TOILETPAPER’s largest show to date and Cattelan and Ferrari’s debut in India. The exhibition will open at the Art House – the Cultural Centre’s dedicated visual art space – on Saturday, July 22, and remain on view through October 22.
TOILETPAPER: RUN AS SLOW AS YOU CAN presents a captivating, immersive display of Cattelan and Ferrari's ever-evolving, oversaturated, hyperreal universe, seamlessly blending commercial photography with a surrealist approach. Inspired by popular culture, the world of advertising, religious iconography and art history, TOILETPAPER investigates the current phenomenon of hyper-consumption of images, all with a delicious dose of irony.
Divided into four chapters, the exhibition challenges our existence and engagement in an increasingly virtual world, where we are constantly bombarded with visual stimuli. The duo uses photography, design and architecture as tools to bring into question the homes we inhabit, the objects we own, and the people that surround us.
As the title suggests, the exhibition is both disorienting and seemingly nonsensical, an intentional nod to the themes that sit at the epicentre of TOILETPAPER’s practice. In an overdosed contemporary society: how slowly can you run?
“As an institution dedicated to showcasing the best of India to the world and presenting the best of the world to India, we are thrilled to bring this fun and quirky show to our country for the very first time. The imagery-laden, surrealist and sensory universe of RUN AS SLOW AS YOU CAN is both young and playful and pushes the boundaries of art as we know it. While fresh and innovative in its conceptual, often ironic approach, at the heart of this exhibit is the celebration of a curious, exploratory energy that is quintessentially Indian. I am certain that TOILETPAPER’S largest show to date will strike a chord with the younger Indian audience and give them an all-new perspective of art that fuels imagination and creative energy.” - Isha Ambani
As part of the Centre’s aim to make art accessible to all – especially aspiring artists – and consistent with the previous exhibition, entry to RUN AS SLOW AS YOU CAN will be free for art students, children below the age of 7, and senior citizens.
Complementing the exhibition, the Art House will offer an array of visitor programming designed to inspire creativity and inculcate interest in arts, including family and children's workshops, weekly salons featuring curated walkthroughs, artist talks, screenings, and more. For the latest schedule, visit nmacc.com.
RUN AS SLOW AS YOU CAN BY TOILETPAPER is curated by Mafalda Millies and Roya Sachs, TRIADIC. Executive Production is by Elizabeth Edelman, TRIADIC. Creative Production is by Antonia Jolles. Exhibition designed by Brigolin Baschera Studio. TOILETPAPER Project Director by Sebastiano Mastroeni and Account Director by Stefania Biliato.
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ANNEXURE 1: About The Exhibition
The first chapter, "Take a Left, Right?," invites audiences into a visually charged labyrinth. Desire, repulsion, irony and gluttony collide in a photomontage maze that conveys a playful and uncanny ambiguity. An environment that at first feels like the kind of manipulations commonly found in advertising is in fact a compilation of illogical narratives and unexpected juxtapositions.
As visitors gradually navigate their way through, the second chapter, "Is There Room in the Sky?," delves into the depths of the subconscious. In this optical illusion, the audience's perception of space and time is warped by the inescapable dream world of a digital meta skyscape. Things are not quite as they seem, as one gradually notices the bizarre and satirical sculptures that ‘float in the sky.’
Reality continues to dissolve in the third chapter, "A House Is a Building That People Live In," introducing the concept of the "perfect home." However, the idea of a safe space is interrupted by a sense of strangeness: a home without a roof, household utilities with no function. The artists subtly tease us to interact with what we soon discover to be artificial perceptions of our “ideal home.” Eclectic mediums collide in perfect harmony in this explosive and lively madhouse, which can also be surveilled from the Art House’s fourth floor.
Finally, the culminating chapter, "The Control Room," emerges as the beating heart of TOILETPAPER. The Lynchian monochromatic space sets a stark contrast to the visually saturated lower floors and highlights the craft and inspirations of the artists. Sprinkled with objects, images and works from the studio’s headquarters in Milan, this space is the beginning and the end, the soul and essence of the artists’ work.
Annexure 2:
About the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre
The Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre is a first-of-its-kind, multi-disciplinary space in the sphere of arts, within the Jio World Centre, located in the heart of Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex.
The Cultural Centre is home to three performing arts spaces: the majestic 2,000-seater Grand Theatre, the technologically advanced 250-seater Studio Theatre, and the dynamic 125-seater Cube. The Cultural Centre also features the Art House, a four-storey dedicated visual arts space built as per global museum standards with the aim of housing an array of exhibits and installations from the finest artistic talent across India and the world.
Spread across its concourses is a captivating mix of public art by renowned Indian and global artists, including ‘Kamal Kunj’ – one of the largest Pichwai paintings in India.
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About TOILETPAPER
TOILETPAPER is an image-only magazine and creative studio founded and run by Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari in 2010. The duo created a quirky and audacious universe where ambiguous stories and disturbing imagination are presented, combining commercial photography with a surrealist visual approach. Inspired by popular culture, the world of advertising, religious iconography and art history, TOILETPAPER investigates the current phenomenon of hyperconsumption of images, all with a delicious dose of irony.
The studio’s practice includes creative direction for multi-media advertising campaigns; publishing projects (Toiletpaper Magazine; 1968: The Dakis Joannou Collection of Radical Design; Kenzine magazine for Kenzo); product design for brands including Seletti and Gufram; capsule fashion collections for MSGM, Kenzo and Longchamp; campaigns for clients such as MAC Cosmetics, OK Cupid, Galeries Lafayette, Samsung and Philips.
The visionary world of TOILETPAPER has been featured in exhibitions around the world in renown locations such as the High Line in New York, Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Art Basel Miami, the Venice Biennale, Foundation Beyeler in Basel, Les Rencontres D'Arles, Hyundai Card in Seoul and Villa Medici in Rome. Moreover, it has also been behind the covers of prestigious international magazines such as New York Times, Le Monde, Zeit Magazine, Vanity Fair America.
ARTIST & CURATOR BIO’S
About Maurizio Cattelan
Maurizio Cattelan (b. Padua, 1960) is one of the most popular as well as controversial artists on the contemporary art scene. His playful and provocative use of materials, objects, and gestures set in challenging contexts forces commentary and engagement. Taking freely from the real world of people and objects, his works are an irreverent operation aimed at both art and institutions. Cattelan has exhibited in major European and American museums and participated in the major international exhibitions of contemporary art. Since 1993, he has lived and worked between Milan and New York.
He first achieved notoriety on an international scale in New York with La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour), a wax statue of Pope John Paul Il hit by a meteorite, which was first exhibited in 1999 at the Kunsthalle Basel. In 2010 he installed L.O.V.E., a permanent public art intervention in Piazza Affari, Milan. In that same year, Cattelan started TOILETPAPER, co-created with the photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari. In 2011, he provoked a lively debate with an installation of two thousand stuffed pigeons presented at the 54th edition of the Venice Biennale. That same year, Maurizio Cattelan had a one-man show at the Guggenheim in New York, with all his works suspended from the ceiling. In late 2019, a solo exhibition of his major works took place at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. In July 2021, he inaugurated the solo exhibition "BREATH GHOSTS BLIND" at the Pirelli Hangar Bicocca in Milan. The same year, he inaugurated his first solo exhibition in China, "The Last Judgment", at the Ucca Museum in Beijing. In late January 2023, he inaugurated "WE" at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea, his largest retrospective in Asia.
About Pierpaolo Ferrari
Pierpaolo Ferrari (b. 1970) is an Italian photographer, born and raised in Milan, Italy. Working for agencies like BBDO and Saatchi & Saatchi, he has made a name for himself shooting for international clients like Nike, Sony, Heineken, MTV, Mercedes Benz, Audi, and BMW. His vision is instantly recognizable by its colorful surrealism, which he accredits to the style of his early mentors. Requiring almost complete creative freedom when working for a client, he notes, "If you call me, and you have a picture in mind and you want me to do that picture—you need to call someone else. Someone who is good at interpreting your ideas. We want to know the feeling that you're going for, but after that we go our own way." His work has been featured in advertisements for Kenzo and Alitalia, and in publications including The New York Times, Bloomberg Pursuits and Wallpaper*. In 2007, he began a collaboration with L’Uomo Vogue which offered him the chance to explore the portrait’s potential and radically change its codes. In 2010, a metamorphosis was accomplished by sharing with Maurizio Cattelan a new publishing obsession: Toiletpaper magazine. When he’s not shooting, he can be found surfing in Costa Rica.
About TRIADIC
TRIADIC is a creative house that sits at the forefront of arts & innovation. Led by creative director Mafalda Millies, curator Roya Sachs, and business strategist & producer Elizabeth Edelman, TRIADIC specializes in the conception and execution of unprecedented cross-disciplinary collaborations and events. With a combined expertise in performing and visual arts, creative direction and music curation, community building and impact strategy, TRIADIC’s mission is to expand audience connection through unconventional and collective experiences.
In 2022, TRIADIC co-founded and launched FORMAT, a three-day cross disciplinary festival combining music, art and technology in Bentonville, Arkansas. With over 10,000 attendees in its inaugural year, TRIADIC spearheaded all creative, and co-produced alongside Live Nation. Notable collaborations included: half a dozen Nick Cave soundsuit performances including alongside Nile Rodgers & Chic; DRIFT’s iconic Freedom Franchise drone show during Phoenix; and a hypnotic audio-visual installation by John Gerrard and Richie Hawtin. In 2021, TRIADIC produced and curated STILL HERE: Moments in Isolation with Distanz Publishing in Berlin. The project is a collection of over 120 still life images by creative visionaries during the COVID-19 pandemic from across 5 continents and spanning 15 months.
