At 28 meters high, surrounded by 3000 plants of over 300 different species, the 500 track of the Lingotto will host, from Thursday 2 May, the new “Site – Specific” installations by Felix Gonzalez – Torres (Cuba 1957 – USA 1996), Finnegan Shannon (USA 1989) and RirkritTiravanija (Argentina 1961), after having welcomed environmental sculptures and audio installations, luminous sound works, video and cinema interventions by Shirin Aliabadi, Thomas Bayrle, Julius Von Bismarck, VALIE EXPORT, Liam Gillick, Sylvie over the years Fleury, NanGolding, Marco Giordano and Shilpa Gupta, among others.
The reconversion project of the iconic Lingotto runway leads the public, from 2022, to reflect on the meaning of “public space” through the works of international artists who confront the reality of the factory and the surrounding urban landscapes, and explore their social, cultural and political implications. This year, the Agnelli art gallery collaborates with EXPOSED Torino Photo Festival and Book Fair. The project is curated by Sarah Cosulic and Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti, and includes a 1991 work by Felix Gonzalez – Torres called “Untitled”. This is a photograph printed on the Billboard of track 500 and on six advertising billboards around Turin. The intervention is part of the collaboration between the Agnelli art gallery and the widespread exhibition with 29 exhibitions and 23 different locations entitled “EXPOSED. Torino Photo Festival”, now in its first edition, which runs from 2 May to 2 June 2024. The photographic work portrays an unmade double bed, chosen by the artist as a symbol of an era marked by the HIV pandemic and the border between public and private space, addressing issues that are taboo such as death, pain and loss. The artist Finnegan Shannon presents the work “Do you want us here or not”, an intervention composed of a series of benches that he places on the roof of the Lingotto, along the route of runway 500. It is a reflection on the social value of accessibility to spaces, in particular to people with disabilities. Rirkrit Tiravanija presents four ping pong tables placed on one of the terraces of the track, which feature four different languages belonging to the numerous non-Italian communities living in Turin; the installation can be used as a game by the public, but in reality it becomes a space for negotiating identities that challenges the concept of national belonging.
“The reflection on inclusiveness in museum spaces, and on runway 500, has been one of the driving forms of the programming of the Agnelli art gallery since the beginning of its course. This is reflected in the way it was designed and in the accessibility of the contents that are produced – explain the two curators of the exhibition Sarah Cosulich and Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti”.
Lingotto’s runway 500, awaiting the 36th edition of the Book Fair, scheduled for next Thursday 9th to Monday 13th May, hosts for the second year the initiative entitled “On the roof of the Fair”, hosting meetings and reserving reduced admissions to museum for readers of the Salone, with the opportunity to access the FIAT Cafè 500 for free.
Mara Martellotta
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