25 November 2019 – 29 February 2020

Opening on Monday 25 November 2019, 17:00

As part of the Leonardo celebrations, the Museum of Archaeology of the University of Pavia is hosting from 25 November 2019 to 29 February 2020 the intervention of the artist Tomoko Nagao (Nagoya, 1976).

Tomoko’s art is known for its contamination of past and present and for its unique reinterpretation of Western art masterpieces in a Pop key. The Japanese artist appropriates icons and popular myths from the history of art, revisiting them with a taste between irony and satire, in the typical language of Anime and comics: from Caravaggio to Leonardo da Vinci, from Botticelli to Titian, to Velasquez, from the school of Fontainebleau to Delacroix.

Among the works exhibited at the Museum of Archaeology is the reinterpretation of the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper with works on canvas and digital prints: Gioconda green ribbon black dotts, 2018 and Gioconda, 2019, are two oils in which the image of the Mona Lisa appears “tomokised” into a sort of doll with a bow on its head similar to Hello Kitty’s: the thick, black outlines and large, soulless eyes make this image a sort of comic strip or sticker that can be applied to any surface. In fact, this icon loses consistency, it no longer has volume, it only resembles the original in the position of the arms and as a simulacrum it blends into a geometrically textured background. As if to say that the Mona Lisa is, by now, a mental image to which each of us can become attached, not unlike a comic strip protagonist.

This process is evident in Leonardo da Vinci-The Last Supper with MC, easyjet, coca-cola, nutella, esselunga, IKEA, google, 2019, a digital print dedicated to the Last Supper where the comic image of the protagonists prevails, ironic, funny and brightly coloured. The well-known sacred subject, consumed by thousands of visitors, is updated to the point of being immersed among the most famous brands, becoming an icon among others, as in the contemporary visual experience.

The works will be on display during the Museum’s opening hours until 29 February 2020: Mondays 2-5pm, Thursdays 9am-12pm and the fourth Saturday of the month 3.30pm-6.30pm (check the Museum website https://archeologia.unipv.eu/ for any changes).

Address: Central University building (Pavia – Strada Nuova 65), entrance in the passage between the Cortile delle Magnolie and the Cortile delle Statue.

On Saturday 29 February 2020, at 11.00 a.m., in the Aula Scarpa of the University of Pavia, the lecture “500 years of Leonardo: a lesson in creativity” by Prof. Salvatore Mangione of Jefferson University in Philadelphia will mark the finissage of the exhibition.

Caption: Tomoko Nagao, Mona Lisa, 2019, oil on canvas, 120 x 80 cm.