[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2272961888-e1777404455195.jpg?w=683″]<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhat does Damien Hirst have to do with McDonald\u2019s? Nothing.\u201d So begins a perplexing Instagram video introducing an installation organized by Nicolas Ballario, founder of a Milan-based communications agency, that was on view as part of Milan Design Week.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe immersive installation, \u201cPOOL. Ti sblocco un ricordo\u201d (\u201cPool: I\u2019ll Unlock a Memory for You\u201d), is part of a series of offsite exhibitions collectively called Tortona Rocks, in the Tortona neighborhood of Milan. The centerpiece of \u201cPOOL\u201d is a large swimming pool-shaped pit full of hundreds of thousands of colorful balls, like a McDonald\u2019s PlayPlace ball pit on steroids.<\/p>\n
\n\tSo, what does<\/em> the provocative British artist have to do with all of this? Ballario\u2019s video is unclear, explaining that Hirst\u2019s relevance to the project, which is intended to celebrate McDonald\u2019s 40th anniversary in Italy, is, in fact, irrelevant. \u201cArt is compelling when it is ambiguous, when it is disorienting and fills you with doubt,\u201d he says. Okay, then!<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to McDonald\u2019s, the massive ball pit was \u201cinformed by\u201d Hirst\u2019s well-known \u201cSpot Paintings,\u201d of which he completed hundreds, beginning in 1986. In 2012, over 300 of these paintings were on view at 11 Gagosian gallery locations around the world. (Anyone who proved that they visited all 11 galleries won a personalized and signed spot print.)<\/p>\n \n\tOn an illuminated wall near the foot of the pool is another Hirst-inspired artwork, this one from the series \u201cEarly Works\u201d by Vedovamazzei. In this project, the longtime Italian duo creates paintings that imagine how famous artists might have drawn as children. So here we see a faux-youthful work by Hirst, made up of colorful oblong splotches on white paper. (Other artists that got the Vedovamazzei treatment include Giotto, Andy Warhol, David Hammons, and Rembrandt.)<\/p>\n \n\tThe rest of the installation is more obviously pegged to the McDonald\u2019s anniversary. There are vitrines filled with Happy Meal toys, a Ronald McDonald replica sitting on a bench (not floating in a Formaldehyde-filled tank, I\u2019ll point out), and various other nostalgic McDonald\u2019s-related ephemera and memorabilia. \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe first McDonald\u2019s opened in Italy on March 20, 1986, in Rome near the Spanish Steps; at the time it was the biggest in the world, with seating for 450 diners. It was not welcomed with open arms, to say the least: the fashion designer Valentino was just one local to vehemently protest the \u201csignificant and constant noise and an unbearable smell of fried food fouling the air.\u201d According to McDonald\u2019s, there are now 720 franchises in Italy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/what-does-damien-hirst-have-to-do-with-this-mcdonalds-ball-pit-milan-design-week-1234782969\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2272961888-e1777404455195.jpg?w=683″] \u201cWhat does Damien Hirst have to do with McDonald\u2019s? Nothing.\u201d So begins a perplexing Instagram video introducing an installation organized by Nicolas Ballario, founder of a Milan-based communications agency, that was on view as part of Milan Design Week. The immersive installation, \u201cPOOL. Ti sblocco un ricordo\u201d (\u201cPool: I\u2019ll Unlock a Memory […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1907848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1907848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1907848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1907848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1907848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1907848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1907848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}