For the sixth consecutive year, the GAMeC - Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art of Bergamo returns to inhabit the prestigious headquarters of the Palazzo della Ragione, the beating heart of the ancient city, with a new exhibition by Rachel Whiteread, an internationally renowned English artist who in year of Bergamo Brescia Italian Capital of Culture will present a new installation designed in relation to the city and in conversation with the architecture and history of the Palazzo della Ragione.

Always interested in those spaces that belong to our daily lives but are often forgotten, Rachel Whiteread created an environmental installation for the Sala delle Capriate composed of sixty chairs, which constitute the materialization of the empty space between the legs of two different models of sessions.

The sculptures are made of different types of stones that are found in the construction materials of both the Palazzo della Ragione and Piazza Vecchia, as in the case of the Sarnico stone in the facade of the Palazzo della Ragione and the Zandobbio marble in the Contarini Fountain, and which are still extracted from the quarries of the Bergamo area. In this way, the artist wanted to create a close relationship with the territory and its history, as well as with the architecture of the place hosting the exhibition.

The title of the installation is evocative of both the pandemic – the words “And the Animals Were Sold” bring to mind the image of Asian markets where animals of all sorts are sold and which many scholars argue are all origin of the Coronavirus mutation – or of any conversation in which some words can be heard almost inadvertently.