Jon Rafman's First Italian Institutional Solo Show at Palazzina dei Giardini

Canadian artist Jon Rafman (born 1981 in Montreal) presents his first solo exhibition at an Italian institution, hosted at Palazzina dei Giardini in Modena. The show features a coherent progression of video works from the past decade, resulting from anthropological research into obscure corners of the internet. The exhibition includes the trilogy Still Life (Betamale) (2013), Mainsqueeze (2014), and Erysichthon (2015), which explore internet subcultures and hidden aspects of 'second life'. The installation space is covered in cellophane, evoking a serial killer's lab or an abandoned house, creating an immersive but unsettling atmosphere. Critic Domenico Quaranta notes that Rafman presents the current flight from reality toward simulation as a result of a general sense of turbulence leading to escape rather than revolt. Another room features Poor Magic (2017), alternating computer-generated crowds crashing into obstacles with internal images of subcutaneous vessels and tissues. In the central atrium under the dome, solitary viewing stations—some shell-like, others resembling spaceship seats—offer works like Legendary Reality (2017), blending videogame and cyberpunk aesthetics. The exhibition leaves visitors feeling catapulted to the 'most remote borders of the present', contrasting with sci-fi films like The Matrix (1999) or Ready Player One (2018) that typically end with salvation or reward.