Mark Leckey's Catabasis Descends into Turin Parking Garage

Mark Leckey's new installation 'Catabasis' (2026) is installed in the underground parking garage of Piazzale Valdo Fusi in Turin, curated by Cripta747 and Caterina Avataneo in collaboration with EXPOSED – Torino Photo Festival 2026. The work continues Leckey's exploration of post-industrial landscapes, referencing his 2019 Tate Modern exhibition 'O Magic Power of Bleakness' and the video 'Under Under In' (2019). The catabasis—a descent of the living into the realm of the dead from Greco-Roman mythology—is enacted through blueback paper prints affixed to the lowest level of the garage, depicting teenagers from the making of 'Under Under In' and echoing William Blake's imagery. The installation interacts with the ambient sounds of tires on cement and skateboards scraping on cinderblock ledges above. Leckey, who won the Turner Prize in 2008, has long addressed class and estrangement, having been the first in his family to attend university. The work reflects on the precarity of youth and the magic of ordinary things, like reflective stripes on Adidas trousers, as a form of resistance against institutional authority.