ICA Milano Launches Digital Commissions with Benassi and Radha May

Fondazione ICA Milano has launched ICA Committed, a new online initiative curated by Chiara Nuzzi. The program will commission two digital works per year, viewable exclusively on the ICA website. The first invitations went to Riccardo Benassi and the collective Radha May (Elisa Giardina Papa, Nupur Mathur, Bathsheba Okwenje). Benassi's contribution, "Universal Burnout," is a hypnotic video featuring a centuries-old tree on fire, with a soundtrack and narration by artist and theorist Brandon LaBelle reading "Fire," a short story by Karl Ove Knausgård. The work reflects on physical constraint during the Covid-19 pandemic and the impulse to escape confinement. Radha May's video, "When the Towel Drops Vol 2 | India," will be available from September 2021, continuing a series on censorship, politics, and female/queer sexuality. The first volume was exhibited at ICA in 2019. The initiative stems from a reflection on the museum's role in the digital age, reaffirming ICA's commitment to supporting artists exploring cultural implications of digital change.