Kunsthalle Wien presents the first solo exhibition by Diego Marcon (born 1985, Busto Arsizio) in Austria. The exhibition transforms the ground floor of the Kunsthalle in the MuseumsQuartier into a tailor-made theater for the presentation of his new film La Gola (2024). Marcon's work draws on cinematic vocabulary from a variety of genres, including musicals, melodramas, horror and slapstick comedies. His eerie, unique visual worlds use various technical means such as robotics, prosthetics and CGI. This is supported by the screenplay and compositions that use language and sound.
La Gola (2024) is structured by an exchange of letters between Gianni and Rossana. Over the course of eight letters, Gianni describes the successive courses of an exquisite banquet, while Rossana describes the progressive decline of her mother's health. The two characters are played by hyper-realistic puppets that appear motionless, while their eyes are modeled and animated with CGI. Their voices are accompanied by an original composition by Federico Chiari. The music was recorded on a Pietro Corna organ in the Cattedrale di Sant'Alessandro Martire in Bergamo. Marcon draws on well-known subjects from art history and playfully combines detailed depictions of cuisine and illness with an elaborate and energetic score. He uses language, voices and music to create dramatic tension.
Diego Marcon. La Gola, Edition 2024, Photo: Kunsthalle Wien
The film follows a series of recent works that explore what the artist describes as "ambiguity as a political weapon of resistance". In La Gola, the characters are so absorbed in their own drama that they do not listen to each other and appear devoid of empathy. The two narratives run in parallel, alternating between moments of poetry, seduction, sadness and disgust. Deliberate or strategic ambiguity (as it is referred to in global politics) becomes here a narrative device and an instrument of critique, creating a situation that resonates strongly with our time.
October 4, 2024 to February 2, 2025
https://kunsthallewien.at
Diego Marcon, La Gola, 2024, film still, © Diego Marcon. Courtesy the artist; Sadie Coles HQ, London; Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York; Centre d'Art Contemporain Genève for BIM'24, Kunsthalle Wien and Kunstverein in Hamburg.
