Fondazione ICA Milano presents, from Wednesday 25 January to Saturday 18 March 2023 , the solo exhibition Morestalgia by Riccardo Benassi (Cremona, 1982), curated by Alberto Salvadori.

The exhibition inaugurates the 2023 cultural season of the ICA Milano Foundation and has its roots in Riccardo Benassi's many years of research, articulated in the ground floor spaces where it comes to life as an intimate and personal journey. The exhibition project is conceived for the occasion and presents a selection of works presented for the first time in Italy.

Evoking a nostalgic feeling, Morestalgia unfolds through a liquid narrative focused on the central element of language, the fundamental cornerstone of the artist's practice. The exhibition returns personal considerations and reflections, which nevertheless belong to a collective dimension and recall numerous themes that have become common during the pandemic.

The neologism that names the exhibition – morestalgia – refers to a painful feeling characteristic of the post-Internet era which not only permeates the exhibition, but also takes up the name of the installation which is its beating heart. The Morestalgia installation, created by the artist in 2019, uses a LED screen that can be penetrated by the human body to build a collective sensory experience, centered on the movement of the visitor. Passing through the installation, the public becomes aware of the presence of their own and other bodies, becoming part of a situation created by the artist with this same objective. The mechanism activated by Morestalgia draws a real itinerary by stages in the artistic production of Riccardo Benassi.

Among the works on display is the English version of the work Daily Desiderio Domestico, the Italian iteration of which has been permanently exhibited in the spaces of the ICA Milano Foundation since 2019. The LED screen that composes it receives and transmits a daily message, visible for only twenty-four hours and aimed at conveying the ghostly presence of the artist who creates the text. There is also a reflection on artificial intelligence and the automation of creativity, articulated through the video recording of a small robot intent on painting the artist's childhood landscapes.