Pirelli HangarBicocca presents the “Ground Break” exhibition from 28 March to 28 July 2024, dedicated to Nari Ward, an internationally renowned artist, known since the 1990s for his installations made with everyday and recycled materials with a strong symbolic value, in which are layered with social references and references to historical traumas, both past, recent and contemporary.

With “Ground Break” the artist creates a monumental choreography between works from the last thirty years and new productions and a dialogue between sculptures, videos and installations, of strong involvement for visitors. The exhibition, also animated by a performance program in collaboration with other artists and musicians, opens up reflections on central issues of our time, such as social responsibility, inequality, marginalization, migration, offering possible perspectives of transformation and change . Celebrated as one of the most important contemporary American artists, Nari Ward (St. Andrew, Jamaica, 1963; lives and works in New York) creates works layered through interweaving and juxtapositions of recovered elements with which he alludes to different social and political aspects and addresses themes relating to identity, racial issues, justice and consumerism. With his touching and provocative installations, videos and sculptures, the artist infuses new meanings and genealogies into discarded objects found in unlikely places, such as abandoned buildings, streets, parking lots, revealing forgotten histories and geographies through complex and unprecedented narratives.

In his thirty-year practice he has created an intricate network of references and reflections between historical instances and current, local and global themes, from the colonial history of Afro-Caribbean communities to that of slavery in the United States, from the gentrification of Harlem, a predominantly African-American neighborhood and Latina from New York, to the migration crisis in the Mediterranean Sea. At the same time it investigates spiritual and conceptual issues connected to human relationships, social justice, the construction of collective identities and communities through a shared historical memory. Central to Ward's practice is his transformative and collaborative approach to art, to the point that many of his works arise from a direct dialogue with the public.