Gallery 01:19

DESTABILISED POWER

Lying on a red carpet in the corridor is Maurizio Cattelan’s sculpture of Pope John Paul II, struck to the ground by a meteorite. Does this illustrate nature’s revenge on humanity, or are we witnessing divine intervention in a world riddled with abuse of power and greed? The title, La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour), invokes Christ’s exclamation on the ninth hour of the day he was crucified: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Cattelan uncovers power structures and challenges them. The first room of this exhibition has a group of figures dressed in black like cardinals, with ghostly white faces and gaping mouths. They are part of the Swiss artist Eva Aeppli’s work Groupe de 48 in the Moderna Museet Collection. Walking among them, we become part of the work.

A few pigeons watch the scene, as in countless streets and plazas, not least in Rome. In the Vatican, stronghold of the Catholic Church, is the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo painted the walls and ceiling in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Near to where you are standing is a smaller copy of this world-famous room, painted by skilful craftspeople. Cattelan delivers the ideas for the works but is rarely involved in their production. Copying is an act of love, according to the artist, referring to the saying that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But the magnificence is lost in the copy. Something happens to the hall of power when it shrinks and the perspectives shift.