Event: Jannis Kounellis. Untitled at Gallery 10 Corso Como

Gallery 10 Corso Como in collaboration with GALLERIA FUMAGALLI presents Jannis Kounellis. Untitled Curated by Alessio de' Navasques From May 13 to June 16, 2026 Gallery 10 Corso Como

Detail: Jannis Kounellis, Untitled . Photo by Lucrezia Roda. Courtesy of Galleria Fumagalli, Milan

 

In the month of May, when Italy hosts major international exhibitions, the Galleria di 10 Corso Como pays homage to the master of Arte Povera, Jannis Kounellis, with a special project created in collaboration with Galleria Fumagalli.

The reimagined spaces of 10 Corso Como, once industrial spaces, now house the strong, rigorous language of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. An invitation to reflection and silence, the Gallery's white space is transformed into a minimalist theater, where the visitor is the protagonist. The dramaturgy is constructed from a single large installation, created by the Greek artist in 2009, composed of seventy black coats arranged like stains and traces of the past, a powerful and silent device of introspection. In a present marked by profound political and social upheaval, in which migration, displacement, and the condition of human beings in transit are once again at the center of global debate, the work imposes itself as an invitation to pause and look beyond the surface. Kounellis has explored unconventional art spaces—churches, garages, ruins, former industrial spaces—extending his exhibition practice beyond museums and galleries and toward a public and shared dimension.

In the large white space of the Galleria di 10 Corso Como, the installation features a tightly packed sequence of coats: objects that retain the material and immaterial traces of their wearers, becoming signs of absence, presence, testimony, and memory. Not simply garments, but traces of lives lived, bearers of individual and collective histories, symbols of protection, vulnerability, and movement. The coat thus becomes a direct reference to man, placed at the center of the research, within a grand one-act performance in which life itself is enacted. In the context of 10 Corso Como , a space linked to visual culture, fashion, and the intersection of artistic disciplines, the coat takes on layered meanings.

The work invites us to suspend judgment and reflect on clothing as a testimony to time: an element charged with cultural references, linked to the literary tradition of Gogol and Dostoevsky and neorealist cinema, an allegory of nomadism and diaspora, a powerful bearer of social history. In this installation, it becomes stain, cast, body, and shroud, embracing both the sacred and social dimensions.

Jannis Kounellis, 2009. Courtesy Galleria Fumagalli, Milan