Giovanni Anselmo

Orizzonti (Horizons) is the title of Giovanni Anselmo's installation: it is made up of 4 blue lights that represent the words North, East, South and West, the 4 cardinal points. All the lights are visible at the same time from the center of the square, so as to allow anyone passing by to orient themselves, seeking their own direction in the space. By indicating the cardinal points starting from the exact center of Piazza Carlo Alberto, the artist connects a place in Turin with a wider, global, geographical and ultimately cosmic space.  

The spectator, as well as the casual passerby, will in this way have the opportunity to go "beyond" the mere spatial and historical data in which they find themselves living at that moment, finding and redefining their own horizon. The installation interacts with the layout of the city, repositioning it and showing, in a subtly disturbing way, how the claimed orthogonality of a big part of the urban plan is actually out of phase with respect to the cardinal points.  

Through Anselmo's works you can feel the world taking position under your feet, and the body becomes physically and mentally aware of eternal and immutable elements, as in the case of historical works in which the magnetic needle of the compasses indicating the north is used. The artist directly presents the energies of the cosmos and of life, staging them, exposing them and not representing them, and making concepts such as gravity, balance and the forces of nature visible. Light, in this process by which the invisible is made visible, takes on a fundamental role and becomes the material of choice: this is demonstrated by works such as Neon in Cement (1967-1969), composed of four neon tubes connected to an electric circuit and immersed in as many concrete blocks, which only allow a glimpse of the final ends and the light emanating from them. Or as in the series entitled Particolare, which began in the seventies, in which the writing “PARTICOLARE” (always in the Helvetica font) is projected on the walls of the exhibition spaces as well as on the bodies of the spectators who find themselves passing in front of the projectors. 

Recent solo exhibitions of Giovanni Anselmo in Italy and internationally include: Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2024) and MAXXI - Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome (2024).  

Antonio Grulli, curator of Luci d’Artista.