Untitled, 2018

Maurizio Cattelan

Narrator: Welcome to a miniature version of the Sistine Chapel in scale 1:6. The very popular original is in the Vatican City in Rome. Cattelan’s tiny chapel is complete with hand-painted copies of Michelangelo’s iconic ceiling frescos and the altarpiece, “The Last Judgment”. Works of art that epitomise the peak of Renaissance art.

For Cattelan, the act of copying is a declaration of love, and the Sistine Chapel is undeniably one of the world’s most loved and admired rooms. But Cattelan also sees copying as a way of giving a second life to something that has already happened. The copy becomes a new original, and the conceptual meaning or reason behind the copy is what defines whether it is a banal replica or a new work in its own right, he states.
 
But the Sistine Chapel is not famous only for its epoch-making art. It is also the place where the cardinals gather to elect a new pope. In other words, this room is charged with artistic, spiritual and worldly power. In the miniature chapel, Cattelan shifts the balance of power and allows us to take over the space as giants. And here – at least figuratively – you are bigger than God.