6 July 2012
An exhibition that brings together works whose common feature is the fact that they are made with neon. I must admit: on paper it didn’t seem like a great idea. Inappropriate, in its vagueness, like an exhibition devoted to painting or sculpture. Just a bit more clever in the less obvious choice of medium. I’ve had to change my mind: the exhibition Neon. La materia luminosa dell’arte, curated by David Rosenberg and Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and staged at the MACRO until 4/11, is beautiful. And not to be missed. A walk through the Enel hall (the Italian electric utility is the exhibition’s logical sponsor), enveloped in the colored gleams of the works on display, makes it clear that beauty is not a concept irrelevant to contemporary art. The primary use of this industrial material is in communication, a function that is taken up by the artists in order to transform neon into pure, incandescent poetic material.
Andrea Nacciarriti. Photo: © Caroline Corbetta
Bruce Nauman. Photo: © Caroline Corbetta
Valerio Rocco Orlando. Photo: © Caroline Corbetta
Joseph Kosuth. Photo: © Caroline Corbetta
Pierre Bismuth. Photo: © Caroline Corbetta
Bruce Nauman. Photo: © Caroline Corbetta
Alfredo Jaar. Photo: © Caroline Corbetta
Maurizio Nannucci. Photo: © Caroline Corbetta