Neon in Contextual Play. Joseph Kosuth and Arte Povera

The exhibition, installed in the groundfloor space, is focused on the use of Neon in the work of Joseph Kosuth and selected Arte Povera artists Mario Merz (1925-2003), Pier Paolo Calzolari (b. 1943) and Emilio Prini (1943-2016).
Turin is important for Kosuth for being the location of his first solo exhibition in Italy: in 1970 his 15 Locations 1969/70 Art as Idea as Idea 1966 – 1970 travelled to Galleria Sperone. Moreover, as Arte Povera was arguably one of Turin’s major contributions to art history, with many of the artists within the group calling it home, it seemed a fitting schema for Kosuth to create a second project with his neon works alongside those by Arte Povera artists who also used the industrial material from the late 1960s. Included are an important Fibonacci sequence work by Mario Merz titled ‘Piccolo caimano’, 1979, on loan from a private collection, and two works by Pier Paolo Calzolari. A work by Emilio Prini – the 1967 ‘Gradino tipo per porta’ is additionally a poignant homage to the artist behind the genesis of this exhibition project and an important physical manifestation of his imprint on the conceptual structure behind it.