Fondazione ICA Mila no presents, from Friday 16 September 2022 to Saturday 7 January 2023 , the exhibition MY SKIN-CARE, MY STRENGTH by Costanza Candeloro (Bologna, 1990), curated by Chiara Nuzzi.

Set up in the spaces of the project room of the ICA Milano Foundation, the exhibition returns the profound and multifaceted reflection that the artist dedicates to the relationship between contemporary society and new technologies, with particular attention to the role that language assumes in these dynamics. In Costanza Candeloro's work, verbal and gestural language is the vehicle and protagonist of a research that is articulated on different levels of reading and makes use of numerous expressive tools - from sign to sculpture, from speech to video, from installation to performance.

The exhibition project is part of the research horizon anticipated by the artist in June 2022, with the presentation of the video work Kitten HD & Kitten Lo-fi on the digital platform of the ICA Milano Foundation.

The reflection articulated in the video and focused on our media landscape, explored through videos and viral images of cats, dogs and other animals considered cute [tender, in Italian], reverberates in the physical space through a heterogeneous body of works. The exhibition itinerary starts from Kitten HD & Kitten Lo-fi, whose stills imprinted in the ceramic and set up on the walls are transformed into sculptures and photographic images, dotting the space. The viral contents selected by Costanza Candeloro are returned in high and low definition, simulating the itinerary that, in the hyper-digitized society, leads the same image to be repeatedly uploaded, downloaded, shared and modified.

The importance of the viral image in our everyday life is highlighted by the works Sleeping Beauty (2022) and Lolita Turns 67 (2022). Made of earthenware and supported by metal structures with a minimal aesthetic, the two sculptures are inspired by the many video tutorials available online dedicated to skin care, the daily practice of skin care. Emphasizing the gestures that this type of video promotes, the artist focuses on how the viral content is able to actively affect the daily routine up to exercising a real form of control over the body and mind. The result is a progressive disappearance of the details that make the face unique, flattened and incorporated into a mask of disturbing perfection.