Lugano
The exhibition La Via Lattea. Declinazioni del bianco nel XX secolo, from 7 December 2024 to 16 March 2025 at Villa d’Este, aims to explore the concept of whiteness in 20th century artistic production, proposing an unprecedented dialogue between the contemporary and the various and articulated elements that characterise the city of Tivoli and its history: from the ancient travertine quarries to the Albule waters, from the Greek marbles of the Canopus of Villa Adriana to the Renaissance exterior of Villa d’Este. Organised by the Istituto Autonomo Villa Adriana e Villa d’Este – VILLÆ and curated by Andrea Bruciati, Director of the Institute, the exhibition takes as its protagonist the blank canvas, a fundamental element of artistic research in the 20th century – from Abstractionism to Spatialism, from Poor and Conceptual Art to Performance – in which the monochrome is configured both as a code of reduction and annihilation of subjectivity, and as an open space that lives on the sensations of the user of the work.
On show at Villa d’Este are works by Stefano Arienti, Gianfranco Baruchello, Mirella Bentivoglio, Carlo Benvenuto, Alighiero Boetti, Agostino Bonalumi, James Lee Byars, Vanessa Beecroft, Antonio Calderara, Pier Paolo Calzolari, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Enrico Castellani, Mario Ceroli, Mario Dellavedova, Lucio Fontana, Mario Giacomelli, Alberto Giacometti, Francesco Lo Savio, Piero Manzoni, Marino Marini, Fausto Melotti, Bruno Munari, Gastone Novelli, Gina Pane, Giulio Paolini, Emilio Prini, Angelo Savelli, Arcangelo Sassolino, Sissi and Kiki Smith.