Pablo Bronstein: Ur-Utz

Ur is an ancient Mesopotamian city, often – though incorrectly – regarded as the first city in history, but it is also the prefix denoting that which is original or primary. Utz, on the other hand, is the name of the protagonist of Bruce Chatwin’s novella of the same name, an eccentric collector who lives in seclusion in Cold War-era Prague with his collection of Meissen porcelain. These two seemingly disparate references form the starting point for Ur-Utz, Pablo Bronstein’s solo exhibition, which Palazzo Bentivoglio is presenting from 22 January to 25 April 2027, curated by Tommaso Pasquali.

The project envisions an evolution of industrial civilisation that is deliberately false, anachronistic and pseudo-historical, constructed through collectable objects that often border on kitsch, straddling popular taste and middle-class aspirations. Tin toys, resin Old England model houses, miniature animals and Wedgwood ceramic ornaments become the elements through which Bronstein reconstructs, with irony and meticulous precision, a supposed genealogy of modernity.

An understanding of the social and economic mechanisms underlying aesthetic forms lies at the heart of the work of Pablo Bronstein, a British artist of Argentine origin who weaves together architecture, criticism and decoration through drawings, installations, performances and scenographic constructions. “We invited Pablo Bronstein to engage with the underground venue of Palazzo Bentivoglio in the most radical way possible: not with an exhibition of works, but through the creation of a comprehensive narrative realised entirely as an installation. We were keen to bring back to the forefront that aspect of his research in which his disenchanted view of the motives hidden behind the decorative manifests itself on a large scale” explains curator Tommaso Pasquali.

The entire exhibition is conceived as a single narrative space, divided into a series of large tables featuring dioramas, shaped directly on site by the artist. These miniature landscapes, populated by objects, figures and architectural features, reconstruct hypothetical stages in the evolution of history, starting from theories about its course and meaning that are now outdated: from organised hunting to the emergence of the English garden, from the rural village as the origin of the urban centre, to the development of industry and its subsequent decline. The theme of mass production and kitsch, present throughout the exhibition, is also an integral part of the installation: it is inscribed in the real objects used by Bronstein to construct the installations, but also becomes part of the story that those very objects help to tell.

“This exhibition is a hypothetical thesis on the development of civilisation, using collectable ceramics and industrial toys as a material-culture thread used to both make the exhibition and self-reflexively discuss its production”, says Pablo Bronstein.

Alongside the large-scale installations, there is also a series of new works on paper, which take up and develop the themes of the sculptures and landscapes.

Ur-Utz builds on an already established relationship between Bronstein and Palazzo Bentivoglio, which over the years has acquired several of the artist’s works, commissioned a piece from him for the exhibition Felicissimo Giani (2023–2024) and displayed Horological Piazza (2008) in a street-level storefront as part of the garage Bentivoglio project. With this new exhibition, the institution renews its interest in Bronstein’s work through a more wide-ranging project, in which the imagery of bygone eras becomes a tool for laying bare, with biting irony, the pretensions and illusions of modernity.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an artist’s book published by Koenig Books.

22 January – 25 April 2027
Palazzo Bentivoglio, via del Borgo di San Pietro 1, Bologna, Italy.
Images courtesy of the artist © Pablo Bronstein. Text from Tommaso Pasquali / Palazzo Bentivoglio