Angolan artist Nastio Mosquito has taken over Fondazione Prada the site-specific installation, WEorNOT (Nastivicious’ Temple #01), a collaborative work made by Nastivicious, the collective formed by Mosquito and Spanish artist Vic Pereiro in 2008. Or, as self-described on the group's website, "Nastivicious is a productive unit. We are committed to create good work. We are going to die." Don't expect a group like this to color within the lines.
Most striking in the Nastivicious Temple are the massive stained glass windows. The caricatures depicted on the windows show Ronald McDonald suited up for a boxing match, pandas engaged in a massacre, and giant blue pills marked "VGR' (described bluntly, they are supersized Viagara), among other cheeky imagery. Add to this scattered pews that face all directions except toward the pulpit in the center of the room, and this temple is anything but.
WEorNOT reassigns the concept of worship to a social and political context (President Barack Obama and Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is engaged in the broil with Mr. McDonald, also make an appearance as window characters). It's also the setting for reflection. In part because religion encourages this inward analysis, and also due to some encouragement from Mosquito himself: Viewers become active participants in the exhibit by listening to the artist's monotone voice chant to them over headphones.
WEorNOT is one part of Mosquito's three-part exhibit at Fondazione Prada called Template Temples of Tenacity. A series of public performances called I Make Love To You. You Make Love to Me. Let Love Have Sex With The Both of Us (Part 1) - The Gregorian Gospel Vomit (2016), inspired by the Christian hymn Jesus Loves Me, and the audiovisual work, Synchronicity Is My Bitch: The Cinematic Experience (2016), complete this (holy) trinity.
Template Temples of Tenacity is on view at Fondazione Prada through September 25.
