HAMMONS HOTEL

Modica, 2025 March 15th - April 20th

HAMMONS HOTEL, from 15 March to 20 April 2025, is the third exhibition at Garage Fontana, a new exhibition space in Modica that invites visitors to explore the ‘elsewhere’, by recreating places inside the garage through a combination of psychological, social and aesthetic considerations.

At the centre of the staging of HAMMONS HOTEL, which takes its name from Michelangelo Menu's canvas-sign, is a hotel with a bohemian atmosphere complete with a reception, a vestibule and a bedroom. An ‘out-of-the-way place’, a bit Chelsea Hotel, a bit artists’ refuge. 

At the HAMMONS HOTEL we experience the reconstruction of an eclectic imagery in which anecdotes and backstories resonate in a game of cross-references, that keeps us suspended between what we see and what the works subliminally convey. The clues are hidden in the words of the embroidered songs, in the expressions of the subjects portrayed, among the decorated cushions and in the titles of the works on display.

In the reception area, Michelangelo Menu's 'Hammons Hotel' polyptic, Servomuto's ‘I Wanna be your Dog’ lamps as a tribute to punk rock culture, French artist Pierre Huyghe's ‘Autoroute’ triptych, Giuseppe Arezzi's multifunctional ‘Binomio’ object transformed into a reception desk and his ‘Giro’ paper carpet. In the vestibule, Aldo Palazzolo's wearable fabric sculptures and portrait photographs, a ‘tattooed’ mirror by Alessandro Mendini for Zanotta and the double-sided ‘Go with the flow’ tapestries by the Picard & Schreckenberger duo, as a scrim. A transgressive note is set in the bedroom with Joseph Beuys' ‘Notice to Guests’, Cattelan's golden toilet ‘America’, the silkscreen prints on paper ‘Je n'aime pas / Le bon ton’ and the ‘CAOS QUOTIDIANO’ cushions by FUCK$IMILE.

The t-shirt ‘Modica is the new Paris’ by FUCK$IMILE x Garage Fontana is unveiled on the occasion of the exhibition. 

‘Be careful in the shower, the cold is hot and the hot is cold’. Quote Arthur Miller in The Chelsea Affect.

Garage Fontana, Via Fontana 199 Modica

Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

EXHIBITION VIEWS

Copyright : Natale Leontini

Hammons Hotel

Michelangelo Menu

Acrylic on canvas

Dim 94 x 376 each

2024

WORKS

Carpet 'Giro'

Giuseppe Arezzi x It's Great Design

Paper fibre rope weave

Diameter 200 cm

 2023

‘CAOS QUOTIDIANO’

FUCK$IMILE

Double-sided cushion in damask and Jacquard fabric with patches

Different sizes

2012

Lamp Butterfly ‘In my favorite place’, ‘I want you here’

Servomuto

Black embroidery on white linen fabric

Dim 37 x 30 cm

2013-2025

Multi purpose furniture ‘Binomio’

Giuseppe Arezzi x It's Great Design

Ash wood

Dim H 180 x 86 x 70 cm

2019

Diptyque ‘Je n’aime pas / Le bon ton’

FUCK$IMILE

Screenprint

Dim 200 x102 cm each

Edition of 10

2025

Lamp Quadro ‘Loose my heart …’

Servomuto

Black embroidery on white linen fabric

Dim 40 x 28 cm

2013-2025

Mirror ‘Sosia’

Alessandro Mendini x Zanotta

Decorated mirrored crystal

Dim 90 x 47 cm

1990s

T-shirt ‘Modica is the new Paris’

FUCK$IMILE

White cotton

Sire M,L

2025

Lamp Scudo ‘I wanna be your dog’

Servomuto

Black embroidery on white linen fabric

Dim 37 x 30 cm

2013-2025

‘Soggetti d’Affezione’

Aldo Palazzolo

Vintage fabrics and photographs

Different sizes

1983 - 2025

‘Notice to Guests’

Joseph Beuys

Offset with dollar bill, inscribed
Dim 20.2 x 25.2 x 1.5 cm

1974

‘Autoroute’

Pierre Huyghe

Triptych

Mixed media

Dim 250 x 110 cm

1988

‘Go with the flow’

Celia Picard & Hannes Schreckenberger

Hand-felted wool

Dim 310 x 225 x 2 cm

2022

‘America’

Maurizio Cattelan

Digital print

2016


EXTRA CONTENTS

Graphic design: GG-Office

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