ARTISSIMA 2024
Contemporary Expressions
In conjunction with Artissima, MAO is opening the second edition of Contemporary Expressions on Saturday 2nd November at 6pm. This programme of artist residencies and site-specific commissions uses contemporary art as a means for interpreting, re-reading and showcasing the museum’s collection, descending on the present to discover new meanings and connections between different periods and cultures.
The works by Marzia Migliora, Kengo Kuma, Lee Mingwei and Francesco Simeti presented in 2023 will be joined this year by installations by Qiu Zhijie and Charwei Tsai and Patrick Tuttofuoco’s Ultraworld, a light project made for MAO’s facade that will be part of Costellazione, a fringe section of Luci d’Artista.
The artist Patrick Tuttofuoco imagined a form capable of uniting apparently opposing instances – East/West, feminine/masculine, Kali/Dionysus – in a single expressive field that becomes the basic material for reflecting on the overcoming of gender boundaries and the breaking down of stereotypes, labels and categories, in an attempt to divert attention and light on the identity of the individual, on his essence, and not on his appearance.
The site-specific light intervention, depicting two faces reminiscent of Hellenistic and Asian cultures, occupies part of the façade of the MAO in Turin, and more precisely the corner whose faces face east and west respectively, also spatially generating the union between these two polarities. The two faces, made of textured and coloured fused glass, are composed of carefully designed and numbered elements that, when combined, create the final work.
The work is designed to light up at night, but is intended to be just as fascinating during the day, thanks to the quality of the glass and its interaction with natural light. The collaboration with WonderGlass made the poetic realisation of this vision possible, with a perfect integration of the dialogue between aesthetics and technique.
OPENING DATE: 2nd November 2024 | 4.40 pm
LOCATION: MAO Museum of Oriental Art, Via San Domenico 11, Turin, Italy