15 July – 5 September 2010
The installation by the American artist Jana Napoli, comprising 350 drawers, is a poignant testimony to the cataclysm that devastated New Orleans five years ago: on 29 August 2005, the city was ravaged by the hurricane Katrina: 1.3 million people were forced to leave their homes, 1836 died. The artist, native of New Orleans, returned to the city soon afterwards and was deeply moved by what she saw. In an effort to commemorate the tragedy of the city and its residents, she collected hundreds of drawers spread among the debris in water and mud, and reassembled them to create an installation intended as a monument to the victims. She explains” “These drawers are simultaneously full and empty: they no longer contain – as they used to – clothes, lingerie, cutlery, love letters, but they are filled with the memory of time and place”.
