Diego Marcon: La Gola

Kunsthalle Wien presents the first solo exhibition in Austria by Diego Marcon (b. 1985, Busto Arsizio). The exhibition will see the Kunsthalle’s ground floor space in the MuseumsQuartier transformed into a bespoke theatre to present his new film La Gola (2024). Marcon’s work draws upon different cinematic vocabularies from diverse genres including musicals, melodrama, horror and slapstick comedy. His uncanny, singular imagery employs various technical devices such as robotics, prosthetics and CGI. This is supported by musical scores or scripts that deploy spoken language and sound.

La Gola (2024) is structured by a series of letters between two correspondents, Gianni and Rossana. Over the course of eight letters, Gianni describes the successive courses of an exquisite banquet, while Rossana gives an account of the progressive decline of her mother’s health. The two characters are played by hyperrealistic mannequins, that appear motionless with their eyes modelled and animated in CGI. Their voices are accompanied by an original score composed by Federico Chiari. The music was performed on a Pietro Corna organ and recorded at the Cattedrale di Sant’Alessandro Martire in Bergamo. Drawing upon themes familiar from art history, Marcon playfully combines graphic accounts of cuisine and disease against an elaborate and energetic score, using language, voices and music to create dramatic tension.

Exhibition publication
The exhibition is accompanied by a new book, published by Kunsthalle Wien in collaboration with Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève and Kunstverein in Hamburg with essays by Charlie Fox, Gianni Revello and Sofia Silva.

Artist edition
A limited edition 12 inch red vinyl record of the film score from La Gola (2024) is available from Kunsthalle Wien’s shop. All proceeds support Kunsthalle Wien’s programme. For further information and to order, please contact: shop [​at​] kunsthallewien.at

Diego Marcon (b. 1985, Busto Arsizio, Italy) has held solo exhibitions at Kunstverein in Hamburg (2024); Kunsthalle Basel; Centro Pecci, Prato; Fondazione Nicola Trussardi, Milan (all 2023); Museo Madre, Naples (2021); Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore/LASALLE, Singapore (2019); and Triennale Milano, Milan (2018). His work has been presented within numerous group surveys including Nebula, organised by Fondazione In Between Art Film for the 60th Venice Biennale; the Biennale de l’Image en Mouvement 2024, Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève (both 2024); and the 59th Venice Biennale (2022). Marcon’s films have also been screened at Tate Modern, London (2024); Cannes Film Festival; International Film Festival Rotterdam; and the Viennale, Vienna (all 2021). Marcon lives and works in Milan.

Kunsthalle Wien is financed by Magistratsabteilung Kultur der Stadt Wien (MA7). The exhibition by Diego Marcon is supported by the Italian Cultural Institute in Vienna on the occasion of the Giornata del Contemporaneo. La Gola was produced by Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Kunsthalle Wien and Kunstverein in Hamburg with additional support from Sadie Coles HQ, London, and Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York. The accompanying publication is supported by the Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council programme (2024).