Artists

Lovett/Codagnone

Press release

PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea presents _I Only Want You To Love Me_, the first anthological exhibition dedicated to Lovett/Codagnone, a collaborative artist team formed in 1995 by John Lovett (1962, Allentown, Pennsylvania) and Alessandro Codagnone (1967, Milan - 2019, New Jersey). The exhibition, promoted by the Municipality of Milan and produced in collaboration with New York-based Participant Inc, is curated by Diego Sileo. _I Only Want You To Love Me_ at PAC includes early works in photography and video through more recent sculptural installations and public billboards, as well as a previously unrealized neon installation produced for this exhibition. In the duo’s practice, love and power are the protagonists of an unmasking role-play aimed at both structures of interpersonal relationships and collective identity. Using photography, performance, video, sound, and installation, Lovett/Codagnone’s work addresses the absorption of underground tactics of resistance, and reflects on those processes of normalization in progress that suffocate subcultures, practices of dissent, and the affirmation of the subjective. Hence the constant reference to radical figures in literature, cinema, theater, and punk music. In 2008, Lovett/Codagnone formed the band CANDIDATE with musician Michele Pauli. In memory of Alessandro Codagnone, the exhibition is a unique opportunity to understand Lovett/Codagnone’s relevance on the international scene and their influence on the following generations. Photo: _After Roxy_, 1998/2015 © Lovett/Codagnone. Courtesy Estate of Lovett/Codagnone