Promoted by the City of Turin and developed in cooperation with Fondazione Teatro Regio Torino, with the technical sponsorship of IREN S.p.A., the support of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo and Fondazione CRT, and in partnership with Fondazione Torino Musei, Luci d’Artista traces an itinerary enabling the public to identify the different poetics expressed by the ‘works’ made by contemporary artists whose artistic visions share the use of the element of light. The event, launched in 1998, was initially intended as an en plein air exhibition of contemporary art installations created with light in urban spaces. Ten years later, the identity of the initiative has been reshaped, and its contents injected with an educational-cultural aspect that encourages the encounter between the public and the works. Luci d’Artista, now at its 24th edition, features 25 light installations, 14 set up in the city centre and 11 in surrounding districts, which, given their success, will remain on until Sunday 27 February 2022 (they were initially supposed to be switched off on the night of 9 January). “We have decided to extend the lighting of Luci d’Artista – explained Rosanna Purchia, councillor for culture of the City of Turin, on the portal guidatorino.com – to offer more people the opportunity to admire our ‘museum of light’. The administration is also working to make an increasing number of works permanent, so that Turin will be recognised as the city of light”. Among the 25 installations on display is Amare le differenze (Love Difference) by Michelangelo Pistoletto (in the cover photo), created in 2005 and located on the facade of the covered market in Piazza della Repubblica; the work displays the phrase “amare le differenze”, written with coloured neon lights in 39 languages of the world, as a message of peace.
The other works that will continue to brighten the city every evening from 6 pm to midnight are Cosmometrie by Mario Airò, in Piazza Carignano; Vele di Natale (Christmas Sails) by Vasco Are, in Piazza Foroni, the local market area; Ancora una volta (Again) by Valerio Berruti, in via Monferrato; Tappeto Volante (Flying Carpet) by Daniel Buren, in Piazza Palazzo di Città; Volo su… (Flight over…) by Francesco Casorati, in the pedestrian area of via Di Nanni; Regno dei fiori: The cosmic nest of all souls by Nicola De Maria, in Piazza Carlina; Il Giardino Barocco Verticale (Vertical Baroque Garden) by Richi Ferrero, in via Alfieri 6 (formerly Palazzo Valperga Galleani); L’energia che unisce si espande nel blu (The energy that unites expands in the blue) by Marco Gastini, in Galleria Umberto I; Planetario (Planetarium) by Carmelo Giammello, in via Roma; Migrazione (Migration) – Climate Change by Piero Gilardi, in Galleria San Federico; Illuminated Benches by Jeppe Hein, in Piazza Risorgimento; Piccoli spiriti blu (Little Blue Spirits) by Rebecca Horn, at Monte dei Cappuccini; Cultura=Capitale (Culture=Capital) by Alfredo Jaar, in Piazza Carlo Alberto; Doppio passaggio – Torino (Double Passage – Turin) by Joseph Kosuth, at Ponte Vittorio Emanuele I; Luì e l’arte di andare nel bosco (Luì and the Art of Going to the Woods) by Luigi Mainolfi, in via Lagrange; Il volo dei numeri (The Flight of Numbers) by Mario Merz, at the Mole Antonelliana; Concerto di Parole (Concert of Words) by Mario Molinari, near the Ospedale Regina Margherita in Piazza Polonia; Vento Solare (Solar Wind) by Luigi Nervo, in Piazzetta Mollino; L’amore non fa rumore (Love Doesn’t Make Noise) by Luca Pannoli, in Piazza Eugenio Montale; Palomar by Giulio Paolini, in via Po; My noon by Tobias Rehberger, at Borgata Lesna in the courtyard of the Comprehensive Institute King-Mila; Ice Cream Light by Vanessa Safavi, in Piazza Livio Bianco; Noi (Us) by Luigi Stoisa, in via Garibaldi; Luce Fontana Ruota (Light, Fountain, Wheel) by Gilberto Zorio, at Laghetto Italia ’61.
