The sculptress was awarded by the Prize Selection Committee – composed of Sebastiano Barassi, Anna Maria Montaldo, Pavel Pyś, Christian Rattemeyer, Lorenzo Respi and Andrea Viliani – and thanks to the collaboration of the Area Musei d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea of the Municipality of Milan, which shares the aims of the Prize, presents a new installation specially conceived for the space of Ignazio Gardella’s stairway, the monumental connecting point between the first and second floors of the Gallery of Modern Art, in dialogue with the artefacts of non-European origin that accompany visitors as they move from the 19^th-century to the 20^th-century collections.

The choice of location inside the museum’s visiting itinerary is not coincidental: in her work, in fact, the artist is accustomed to studying and drawing inspiration from marginal or forgotten contexts, reflecting on objects and materials rich in stories and socio-cultural connotations, which the observer encounters again poetically transfigured in her sculptures.

Personal Protective Demon (PPD) is a imitation marble monolith – a homage to the decorative techniques that characterize the interiors of the GAM – positioned, like a kind of totem or idol, so as to watch over a connective and liminal space of the Galleria d’Arte Moderna. The sculpture, dominating the elliptical staircase, is wrapped in indigo-coloured silk fabric, which, thanks to the action of hidden fans, is lifted intermittently, revealing its hybrid and monstrous semblances, between the human and the animal.

The installation, curated by Federico Giani, curator of the Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, consolidates the Fondazione’s collaboration with the Municipality of Milan, Area Musei Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, launched in 2019 on the occasion of the 5^th edition of the Prize, that also enjoys the media partnership of IGP Decaux.