Toilet Paper #2

On Friday 25 March, 2011, the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi is hosting the launch of the second issue of Toilet Paper, a new project by Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari, published by the Deste Foundation for Contemporary Art in Athens.

Toilet Paper, a visual communication project that grew out of a collaboration between artist Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari, is a next-generation magazine that combines commercial photography, twisted narratives and surreal imagery to create a series of powerful, ambiguous visual tableaux.

Maurizio Cattelan is once again challenging the rules of the contemporary cultural system that he himself belongs to, subverting its paradigms: this time, by poking fun at the world of slick magazines and stuffy, selfreferential art critics. Toilet Paper fearlessly builds a bridge between commercial photography and fine art, relying on the camera of well-known Italian photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari to create an archive of images that seem to bring Cattelan’s dreams, fixations and nightmares to life.
In an interview with the Italian edition of Vogue, Pierpaolo Ferrari commented, “The magazine springs from a passion/obsession that Maurizio and I have in common. Each picture springs from an idea, even a simple one, and then becomes a complex orchestration of people who build tableaux vivants. This project is also a sort of mental outburst”.

Maurizio Cattelan lives in Milan and New York.
A manipulator of images and master of provocation, he draws on reality at its crudest to present the tensions and hysteria of the contemporary world, creating constant short-circuits that hold up all its contradictions for public judgment. His works have long delighted and irritated viewers and critics with their independent,
uncompromising character.
His playful approach to art, pushing the limits of its institutional nature, has always led Cattelan to mingle the roles of artist and curator.
In 2002, with Ali Subotnick and Massimiliano Gioni, he co-founded the Wrong Gallery in New York: a shop window on 20th Street that was run like an art gallery. In 2006, with the same team, he curated the 4th Berlin Biennale.
Maurizio Cattelan’s work has been exhibited at leading cultural institutions around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and Tate Modern in London.
In May 2004, the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi presented his sculpture Untitled: three life-size children, barefoot and open-eyed, hanging from the ancient oak tree of Piazza XXIV Maggio, one of the most
significant locations in the history of Milan.

Pierpaolo Ferrari lives in Milan and New York.
He is a professional photographer who has specialized in advertising since 1994.
He has worked for major brands such as Nike, Audi, Mercedes, Samsung, Campari, and MTV.
In 2006, he co-founded the art magazine Le Dictateur with Federico Pepe.

This event is organized with the support of DISARONNO.

For more info about TOILET PAPER:
http://www.toiletpapermagazine.com/

To purchase the magazine:
http://www.artbook.com
http://www.lespressesdureel.com