The 27th edition of Luci d'Artista returns to Turin.

From October 25 to January 12, 2025, Turin will once again light up and transform its sky with light installations by various artists with the 27th edition of Luci d’Artista, an event curated by Antonio Grulli. Once again for this edition, Fondazione Torino Musei has been entrusted by the City of Turin to work for the enhancement and realization of the longest-running project representing the role of contemporary art in the city’s cultural life. Luci d’Artista is a project and heritage of the City of Turin, realized by Fondazione Torino Musei with the support of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione CRT, Consulta per la Valorizzazione dei Beni Artistici e Culturali di Torino, Unione Industriali Torino and Torino 2025 FISU Games Winter. Main sponsor: Iren Group.

Luci d’Artista is in addition to this, as part of the new Strategic Plan of the Fondazione Torino Musei, the fifth cultural line and aims to transform the event into a true institution of permanent artistic research. In this new edition, the guidelines already established in the 26th edition will be confirmed and implemented: all initiatives will be even more strengthened in order to enhance a unique collection and achieve stable national and international visibility, making the event even more inclusive and ecologically sustainable. The Constellation section will make use of new institutional collaborations such as those with Consulta per la Valorizzazione Beni Artistici e Culturali di Torino and Unione Industriali Torino together with Artissima, with MAUTO Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile, with GAM - Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, and with MAO - Museo d’Arte Orientale.

Academy of Light is probably the section that has most benefited from the new curatorial line, allowing Luci d’Artista to actively collaborate with the Education Departments of the city’s museums and foundations for contemporary art and to live throughout the year, achieving great success in its two appointments aimed at the public: the conference dedicated to Giovanni Anselmo and the day held for the Summer Solstice, both in the spaces of GAM. The process of technological upgrading of the Lights, which will be even more sustainable and low ecological impact, also continues. The goal achieved thanks to the commitment of the Iren Group, which has been at Luci d’Artista’s side for more than 20 years, is being developed with the process of restoration, recovery and refurbishment of the Lights in the collection, for which the contribution of the Council for the Enhancement of Artistic and Cultural Heritage of Turin and Unione Industriali Torino will be fundamental again this year. The presence of the two Turin institutions, which have been supporting Luci d’Artista for years, will enable the restoration of one of Turin’s symbols, namely Mario Merz ’s The Flight of Numbers positioned on the Mole Antonelliana.

After the success of the 26th edition, it is again Turin-based Studio Fludd that created both the visual identity of this edition and the graphics of what are the two new features of Luci d’Artista: the new website and, above all, the first Luci d’Artista logo, which represents the relationship between the arts and light, a sign that is intended to be transversal to the many annual activities included in the event today. The new logo was developed in continuity with the visual identity of the 26th edition, with the intention of recalling the theme of the materiality of light through a glow that animates its surface. In addition to this, the event is enriched by two new light installations signed by great artists selected by the Luci d’Artista Scientific Committee, which has been renewed this past year and is composed of Chiara Bertola and Francesco Manacorda, directors of GAM - Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea and Castello di Rivoli - Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, respectively, who are joined by Luci d’Artista curator Antonio Grulli.

The selection of the two new artists was reached following a series of meetings between members of the Scientific Committee: the names are those of Luigi Ontani (Vergato, 1943) and Andreas Angelidakis (Athens, 1968) with their respective lights Scia’Mano and VR Man. The work Scia’Mano by Luigi Ontani is related to the figure of the Shaman and is connected to the work on universal figures, images and concepts Ontani has always worked on. The work VR Man by Andreas Angelidakis, created on the occasion of and with the support of Torino 2025 FISU Games Winter is taken from theclassical iconography of Greek and Roman sculpture, imagery the artist has been working on for many years. The work is inspired by athletic practice, considered as the foundation of the Olympic Games and as a discipline closely linked to intellectual and spiritual activity, in line with the conception of the Greek classical period. During the Luci d’Artista event, she remembers Rebecca Horn (Michelstadt, 1944 - Bad König, 2024) with the extraordinary lighting, from Monday, Sept. 9 until Sunday, Sept. 15, of the Light she designed for Capuchin Mountain in 1999. Rebecca Horn was a Master of Art whose work, grounded in the subject of the body and the possibilities of its expansion and overcoming, anticipated many issues crucial today. Her work Small Blue Spirits of 1999, restored in 2022 thanks to the contribution of the Council for the Enhancement of the Artistic and Cultural Heritage of Turin, is one of the most beloved Lights. It has dominated the city of Turin for years, and has become one of its symbols, from the top of the Capuchin Mountain. Luci d’Artista is also able to establish important relationships with Turin’s main entities. With this in mind, an important synergy comes to life with the Organizing Committee of the Torino 2025 World University Winter Games, a sports event formerly known as the Universiade. The event will see the creation of a symbolic Artist’s Light, evocative of the indissoluble union between Sport and Knowledge, of athletic practice that is both the foundation of the Games and the foundational element of human intellectual and spiritual elevation. The new installation will become part of the Lights of the City collection in the following years, as a further legacy left by the Torino 2025 FISU Games Winter to the territory.

Notes on the artists

Luigi Ontani, lives in Rome and Riola di Vergato. An iconic figure, he is one of the most influential and recognized Italian artists in the world, with an eclectic career spanning painting, performance, photography and sculpture. In the 1960s he began to devote himself to photography and video, revolutionizing their languages, and in 1969 he made his first Tableau Vivant, Ange Infidèle, with which he brought radical innovations to performance art. Luigi Ontani’s Tableaux Vivants are true living “paintings,” signed or photographed performances in which the artist is the protagonist of the scene, disguised as a historical, literary or mythological character personifying historical, mythological, literary and popular themes. His roots are in Italian cultural traditions, but his work opens to a global vision, embracing the East and the exotic. At the end of 1974 he took his first trip to India and later also arrived in Indonesia, where he was fascinated by the art and culture of the island of Bali. Among numerous exhibitions, he has shown at the Venice Biennale in 1972, 1978, 1984, 1986, 1995, 2003; Identité Italienne: Art en Italie depuis 1959, Centre Pompidou Paris 1981; Italian Art Now: An American Perspective, Guggenheim Museum New York, 1982; Manifesta 2008; A bigger Splash: Painting after Performance, TATE Modern London, 2012. Solo exhibitions include Ganesham USA 1965-2001, MoMA PS1 Contemporary Art Centre, New York; Auroboruserpentine Map Marathon, The Serpentine Gallery, London; Rivoltartealtrove, Castello di Rivoli, Turin, 2012.

Andreas Angelidakis, lives and works in Athens. He describes himself as an architect who does not build, but contemplates architecture as a practice to investigate the psychology of a place and the elements that constitute and inhabit it, examining the idea of ruin, both of ancient and contemporary societies. His works investigate the space where art and architecture overlap and where new technologies influence architecture and the way of life, creating works that reflect on the sociology and history of modernism in architecture, urban culture, and digital media. In his work he presents reconsiderations of Greek ruins in the form of digital video, soft sculptures, and furniture, resulting in a playful interpretation that offers a direct physical experience to the visitor. He has participated as an artist in several international exhibitions, including: The State of the Art of Architecture at the first Chicago Architecture Biennial, the 12th Baltic Triennial at Vilnius Contemporary Art Center and Super Superstudio at PAC Milan in 2015, as well as documenta14 in Athens and Kassel in 2017. In 2019 he participated in Bergen Assembly, contributing a multifunctional social seating system to Paul B. Preciado’s Parliament of Bodies for documenta14, as well as the Moving Image Biennial at OGR in Turin. In 2022 he created the major exhibition POST-RUIN Bent ivoglio at Palazzo Bentivoglio curated by Antonio Grulli, and in the same year Center for the Critical Appreciation of Antiquity the most ambitious artwork ever commissioned by Audemars Piguet Contemporary in Paris. Exhibitions that the artist has curated include The System of Objects at the Deste Foundation in Athens, Super Superstudio at PAC in Milan, Fin de Siècle at the Swiss Institute in New York, Period Rooms at Het Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam, and OOO Object Oriented Ontology at the Kunsthalle in Basel.

The 27th edition of Luci d'Artista returns to Turin.

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