Anni-luce, 2000-01

The floor work commissioned from the artist by the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin in early 2000, on the occasion of the renovation of the museum garden, was inaugurated on 9 May 2001. Conceived for the museum garden, it occupies a flat, accessible surface measuring 60 square metres, delimited by three descending steps: during the summer months the area is used to host the audiences of performances and concerts.
By making use of the trompe-l’œil effect the work suggests the image of a museum room as seen from above, in which the paintings, doors, windows and floor open onto a night-time sky, enlivened by celestial bodies and planets. Nine white “canvases” whirl about in the dizziness of the void – some come in through or leave the paintings – in an illusionistic perspective aimed toward an abyssal space “light-years” away. In the artist’s own words: “We are thus suspended above an exhibition, where the surface of the paintings, having abandoned the frames, seem to in turn be suspended, or to be falling, in time and in space, at an incalculable distance from our gaze”.1
The walls of the room are made of three types of granite in various colours and of different provenance: Bettel White (United States), Barré Gray (Canada) and Brown Porphyry (Val Camonica, Italy). The large black surface at the centre consists of sheets of Anzola Diorite (Val d’Ossola, Italy). The nine “canvases” are made of statuary Carrara marble, the “frames” of golden sand are of Brazilian origin, while the polychrome celestial bodies are made of Blue Quarzite from Brazil, Green Malachite from Sweden, Baltic Brown from Norway and other precious stones.

1 Statement by the artist in the Press Release sent out on the occasion of the inauguration of the work on 9 May 2001.