Martin Creed

The programm of conferences open to the public organized by the Fondazione Spinola Banna per l’Arte will host Martin Creed on April 7th 2006 at 9 p.m.

Born in Wakefield (England) in 1968. He lives and works in London.
“I believe it’s difficult to decide that one thing is more important than another. So what I try to do is make choices without taking decisions.” True to his word, the artist draws on pre-existing, everyday objects or conceptually fragile materials – air, noise, light a door. He uses these to make and, at the same time, not to make, in an attempt at reaching a possible balancing point, a “perfect nothingness”.
A substantial part of his output can be considered conceptual art, where the work is a support for an idea. In fact, Creed never stops probing the concept of author, the artist’s role and art’s worth.
The aim of his playful-cum-conceptual installations is that of grabbing the spectator, who is invited to interact with the work.
Making art “with nothing” satisfies a need, embracing minimal simplicity, formal elegance and subtle irony.
Although Creed strips his work down to its bare core to expose the essential in his work, he tries to concretise the constructive process in the visual result. This is an important reason why he plays and composes music: it is like a different aspect of his working process that develops out of a rhythmic piece of music when performed.
One of the most innovative artists of his generation, he has exhibited in group and one-man shows in many museums and private galleries, these include an important travelling retrospective in 2000, a one-man show at the Bern Kunsthalle and an exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, both in 2003. In 2001 he won the prestigious Turner Prize in London. He has also recorded a number of CDs as a soloist and with his band owada: ‘I don’t know what I want’, Work No. 320, CD, 1 song, Serpentine Gallery, 2004 ‘I Can’t Move’, CD, 7 songs, Toronto: Art Metropole, 1999 ‘EVERYTHING IS GOING TO BE ALRIGHT’, CD, 3 songs (Work Nos. 207, 208, 209), London: The Pier Trust, 1999 ‘nothing’, (with the band ‘Owada’), piano 508, 27 songs, 1997.