Ugo Rondinone

Book excerpt: With his installations, Ugo Rondinone creates personal dreamscapes. In his retrospective exhibition at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the artist presented Vocabulary of Solitude, an arrangement of his works inspired by the color spectrum. Clowns, clocks, candles, shoes, windows, light bulbs and rainbows: they are recognizable images that speak to all of us. These symbols excite free-association and memories. The forty-five clowns with their different postures represent activities of everyday life, at the same time expressing the anguish of human solitude: be, breathe, sleep, dream, wake, rise, sit, hear, look, think, stand, walk, pee, shower, dress, drink, fart, shit, read, laugh, cook, smell, taste, eat, clean, write, daydream, remember, cry, nap, touch, feel, moan, enjoy, float, love, hope, wish, sing, dance, fall, curse, yawn, undress, lie. This is the first of a four-chapter publication series by Ugo Rondinone.