Jean Tinguely

The exhibition at Pirelli HangarBicocca is the most extensive retrospective held in Italy since the artist’s passing and includes around forty works created between the 1950s and the 1990s. These works occupy almost the entirety of the 5,000 square metres of the Navate space. The exhibition is a single visual and sound choreography, featuring pieces of various sizes, some of which are monumental, highlighting the sonic, dynamic, and chromatic elements that reflect Tinguely’s pioneering expressiveness. The mechanical works naturally connect with the vastness of the former industrial Pirelli HangarBicocca building, offering visitors the chance to engage with and explore the practice of the Swiss artist, who viewed art as something far from the idea of authorship—never fixed or definitive. His art was often realised as performance, sometimes placed in non-museum settings, transient, and, through its interactive elements, capable of engaging and captivating audiences.