Seventy Black Coats: Jannis Kounellis's Enigmatic Installation at 10 Corso Como

An installation by Jannis Kounellis, featuring seventy black coats arranged in a silent constellation, is on view at 10 Corso Como in Milan. The work, titled Untitled, draws on the grammar of Arte Povera while pushing beyond its historical framework, focusing on the unstable threshold between object, presence, and residue. The coat functions as a liminal object, retaining the trace of the body while highlighting its instability. Germano Celant, the Arte Povera theorist, described art as a mental process realized through matter, a concept pushed to extremes here. The venue, traditionally associated with fashion and image construction, becomes a neutral surface that strips the coat of its immediate recognizability. Kounellis's approach contrasts with the immersive structures of Richard Serra and the systemic seriality of Dan Flavin, instead introducing a precarious volume and latent theatricality that resists sensory resolution. The installation resists symbolic translation and definitive interpretation, maintaining its pertinence as an operative device in contemporary perception.