Arnaldo Pomodoro Sculpture Prize. 6th edition | Candice Lin. Personal Protective Demon

Awarded by the Selection Committee of the Prize – composed of Sebastiano Barassi, Anna Maria Montaldo, Pavel Pyś, Christian Rattemeyer, Lorenzo Respi, and Andrea Viliani – the sculptor, thanks to the collaboration of the Area Museums of Modern and Contemporary Art of the City of Milan, which shares the goals of the Award, presents a new installation specifically conceived for the space of the Ignazio Gardella staircase, a monumental trait d’union between the first and second floors of the Galleria d’Arte Moderna, in dialogue with the extra-European artifacts that guide the visitor from the nineteenth-century collections to the twentieth-century ones.

The choice of location within the museum's visiting path is not random: in her work, the artist often studies and draws inspiration from marginal or forgotten realities, reflecting on objects and materials rich in histories and socio-cultural connotations, which the observer finds poetically transfigured in her sculptures.

Personal Protective Demon (PPD) is a monolith in fake marble – a tribute to the decorative techniques that characterize the interiors of the GAM – placed, like a sort of totem or idol, guarding a connective and liminal space of the Galleria d’Arte Moderna. The sculpture, towering above the elliptical staircase, is wrapped in indigo-colored silk fabric which, thanks to the action of hidden fans, intermittently rises, revealing its hybrid and monstrous features, between the human and the animal.

The exhibition event strengthens the collaboration between the Foundation and the City of Milan, Area Museums of Modern and Contemporary Art, initiated in 2019 on the occasion of the 5th edition of the Award, and benefits from the media partnership of IGP Decaux.

On the occasion of the exhibition, a catalogue is published by the Foundation, featuring a conversation between Candice Lin and Pavel Pyś.