Maurizio Cattelan Is Dead: Life and Work, 1960–2009

In the summer of 2009, Triple Candie presented Maurizio Cattelan Is Dead: Life & Work, 1960–2009, the first retrospective of the Italian artist’s work. A year later, the exhibition was installed at Deste in Athens. The wall texts were based on information gleaned by Triple Candie during their research and included intentionally re-reported errors from the original sources, uncorrected. By presenting that which becomes lost in the disconnect between artist and admirer, curator and critic, through the process of retelling and circulating information, the exhibitions, in Harlem and Athens--and now the book--ask the public to examine how one’s own perceptions are influenced by the mediums through which we view artwork. Edited and published by Triple Candie, the book intends, as the exhibitions did, to question narrative reliability. At the time of both shows and the publication of the book, the artist was still very much alive.