
Thomas Demand
- Publisher
- Progetto Prada Arte
- Year
- 2007
- ISBN
- 9788887029406
- Specifications
- Two volumes in a faux-leather slipcase
English edition
Curated by Germano Celant
Processo Grottesco: softcover, 15 x 24 cm, 469 pages, 400 ill.
Yellowcake: faux-leather softcover, 15 x 24 cm, 80 pages, 45 ill.
A project by the German artist Thomas Demand, known for his complex and disquieting images and his innovative use of photography, presented at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice and curated by Germano Celant. The exhibition consisted of two large installations. Yellowcake (2007) is a series of photographs exploring a place in Rome instrumental to the US intervention in Iraq; the title refers to the concentrated form of uranium that can be enriched to make nuclear weapons. The second installation, Processo Grottesco (2007), returns to the theme of the grotto, on which the artist worked for more than two years: in 2006, to realise the photographic work Grotto, Demand used a postcard as a starting point to recreate a grotto on the island of Majorca, reproducing the rock chamber, stalactites and stalagmites with 30 tons of grey cardboard shaped by computer and laid out in 900,000 sections, then photographed the result. Processo Grottesco sets documentary materials, postcards, books, tour guides, catalogue illustrations and advertisements alongside the titanic reconstruction and the photograph of Grotto, opening a window onto how the artwork was transformed over time through continuous investigation.