Thaddaeus Ropac Milan is hosting a landmark exhibition titled "Dialogues are mostly fried snowballs," marking the first-ever joint presentation of Marcel Duchamp and Sturtevant. The show stages a cerebral confrontation between Duchamp’s original readymades, such as "Porte-bouteilles" and "Trébuchet," and Sturtevant’s radical repetitions of his work. By showcasing these pieces alongside archival materials and films, the exhibition traces how Sturtevant used Duchamp’s style as a medium to investigate the canonization and "understructure" of conceptual art.
This exhibition is significant because it re-evaluates the legacy of the readymade through the lens of appropriation and digital reproducibility. By connecting Duchamp’s early challenges to the "aura" of the original with Sturtevant’s later deconstructions, the show highlights the enduring relevance of their "grey matter" art in an era dominated by AI and mechanical reproduction. It underscores how both artists shifted the focus of the art world from the retinal image to the underlying concept, a move that continues to define contemporary practice.