The exhibition dedicated to American artist Tom Sachs (New York, 1966), curated by Germano Celant, presents works made from 1995 onward, as well as two installations conceived for Fondazione Prada’s spaces.

Tom Sachs takes his inspiration from the collective American imagination, borrowing his subjects from among the status symbols of mass culture, and he mixes them with the symbols of American wealth. The objects he produces are a caustic parody of the unbridled consumerism, the wild rush for luxury goods, and the aggressiveness associated with contemporary society. In this manipulation of allusions, the artist ironically reinterprets the pistol used by police, icon of the exercise of control and repression, hand crafting a model in a reassuring sky-blue, signed with the mark of a famous jeweler. Similarly, a tray with a hamburger and fries ostentatiously displays a fashion label. Sachs also recreates rifles, military vehicles, and other objects that represent the exploitation of human labor, power, violence, control.

Beside these works, Fondazione Prada presents two large installations. The Island (2006) is a large-scale (1:7) reconstruction of the command area on the bridge of an aircraft carrier, called an ‘island’, which combines the control tower and other important functions on the ship. Balaenoptera Musculus (2006) is a life-size reconstruction of a blue whale, inspired from the reproduction of a whale in the hall of aquatic life at the American Museum of Natural History, in New York. The exhibition presents to the public for the first time Untitled (1989 Chevy Caprice) (2006), a police car personalized by the artist.