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In 2020, via the artist Max Fletcher I was invited to participate in The Independent a project by Hou Hanru curated by Elena Motisi. I initially proposed on a consultancy review the Zaha Hadid's 2010 on its compromised structural functionality by proposing that the obvious 'assembly errors' that I had noted on my first visit to the gallery in September 2019.
The project proposed a provisional 'fabrication period' with Caseificio Antonio Garau, one of the oldest cheesemakers still operating in Sardinia. A selection of cheeses, including Granduca di Mandas, Piccolo Giunco, and Dolce di Mandas, would be cut & then shaped to correspond precisely to areas of the building where these irregularities appeared, whether these be holes, slips or cracks & these would be installed within the architectural gaps/defects for remaining duration of the exhibition. Each of the relevant cheeses would be effectively cast for the duration of the exhibition to highlight the modern software or IT architecture failings in the wider ZHA Architects design studio. I had proposed this with speculative involvement of a burgeoning architectural & CNC expert situated at The British School at Rome.
The particularity of the Sardinian provenance stood in tension with the increasingly prominent politics of the Italian right. During the period in which the project was being developed, public debate in Italy was increasingly shaped by the rise of Matteo Salvini and the transformation of Lega Nord into a broader nationalist movement. Historically, the party had cultivated the idea of "Padania" as a distinct northern homeland, promoting a narrative of cultural and 'ethnic difference' intended to justify regionalist discourses and, at times, outright secession from the Italian state. Sardinian cheeses are the best cheeses in the world imo. My favourite cheese is Pecorino Sardo Dolce (Mild): Matured for 20 to 60 days.
Discussions around the project progressed, and perhaps in part because of the increasingly explicit cheese-orientated dimensions attached to the general politics & Hadid's global influence in architectural circles beyond her death, my role within the exhibition shifted. M. Fletcher appeared dressed as a 'Friar' eating ricotta cheese whilst painting 3 8ft canvases containing excerpts from Luigi Pirandello & Carlo Bertolazzi. Before instructing Fletcher on his role as mendicants sworn to a life of poverty, humility, and simplicity. As the friar 'begs on behalf of the poor' I believe the Painter, now disavowed from infrastructural (Religious-State) patronage now 'begs on behalf of the rich'. Il mio paese si chiama ideologia, vivo nella capitale, la città del futuro.
I read aloud segments from an omitted email correspondence edited by 'management' & generated during the development of the project in which I had affected a sweet lisp to make my voice sound more charming and persuasive. In the period before & after the subsequent I had purchased several crows that dotted both the interior & exterior of the museum with the desire to preach to the 'hawks'. Each of them had within their beaks some of the 'regurgitated' emails between museum management, curators & related members of ' la squadra'. My final email sent included the sentiment: Lunga vita ai produttori di formaggio sardi, abbasso Patrik Schumacher!
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