How Lucio Fontana conceived and developed his lesser-known Ambienti Spaziali (spatial environments) walk-in installations will be revealed in an exhibition due to open at the HangarBicocca contemporary art space outside Milan in 2017.
Argentine-born Fontana (1899-1968) is famous for his abstract paintings dotted with punched holes and vertical cuts, but his architectural interventions—comprising rooms, enclosed structures and sequences of corridors—are a relatively unknown part of his practice. His first environmental work, Ambienti spaziali a luce nero (spatial environment in black light), consisting of a small black room housing fluorescent fossil-like forms, was made in 1949.
“We will reconstruct around ten Ambienti Spaziali in collaboration with the [Milan-based] Lucio Fontana Foundation, which is providing the necessary documentation and research material,” says Roberta Tenconi, a curator at HangarBicocca.
The show is a departure for the vast 15,000 sq. m venue, which, according to a press statement, is “dedicated to the creation and promotion of contemporary art”. HangarBicocca, formerly a factory for manufacturing train parts, is funded and managed by the Italian conglomerate Pirelli.
Vicente Todolí, the former director of Tate Modern in London, became artistic director in 2012. His exhibition programme for 2015 to 2018, announced yesterday, 29 June, includes shows dedicated to works by artists such as Philippe Parreno, Petrit Halilaj, Kishio Suga, Laure Prouvost and Miroslaw Balka.
“Instead of following existing models, we propose new ones, creating entire site-specific exhibitions, rather than singular installations similar to those commissioned for the Turbine Hall [at Tate Modern], and Monumenta [at the Grand Palais in Paris],” Todolí says.
The German artist Anselm Kiefer will add four new large-scale pictorial works and a sculptural installation (2009-13), to his permanent piece, The Seven Heavenly Palaces (2004-15), which was unveiled in 2004 when the venue opened. The newly reconfigured installation is due to be unveiled in September.
