Anish Kapoor returns to Rome after 10 years

 British Indian artist Anish Kapoor has returned to Italy for the first time in 10 years with an exhibition of sculpture at the city-run MACRO in Rome.
    The show, which runs until April 17, 2017, presents 30 works by the winner of the 1990 Venice Biennale, including 24 that have never been exhibited before, offering a reinterpretation of the theme of flesh and blood. "It takes time to become an artist, it doesn't happen immediately," Kapoor says.
    "It requires ongoing commitment, a long process involving doing or not doing something that has meaning. And there musn't be the fear of failure either. It is all part of the risk that an artist has to take". The exhibition at MACRO in Via Nizza includes the imposing cube Sectional Body Preparing for Monadic Singularity, exhibited last year at Versailles, and Internal Objects in Three Parts that has been displayed among the Rembrandts at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
    Other works on show include Unborn, Hung and Flayed, all from 2016, and the less recent Apocalypse and Millennium and Gethsemane, both from 2013.
    "Meaning doesn't have to be a problem for the artist," Kapoor says. "Often I also say I don't have anything to say. The meaning is revealed in the relationship between the object and the observer, with the latter becoming an active part of the work." Kapoor said after 10 years away from Italy, Rome was "the right opportunity, for me and for these works".
    In regards to Brexit, the India-born sculptor who has lived in the UK for over 40 years said it is necessary to recognise a "special European connection that allows artists to explore different cultural possibilities". The exhibition has cost the city authorities 450,000 euros and is the first major event at MACRO for some time. "The museum has suffered from periods of general uncertainty, including within city management," said culture councillor Luca Bergamo, adding however that this year the number of visitors and ticket sales at MACRO have grown. "The aim is to make the institutions that are involved in contemporary art in the city cooperate structurally," Bergamo said.