Richi Ferrero

The fully illuminated crane by Richi Ferrero, known to the people of Turin as Lucedotto (Light line) since 2000, is the latest version of a work that has changed shape and title over time. 

In the first edition in 1998, the Christmas Crane, 40 metres high and covered with 88,000 light bulbs, stood in Piazza della Repubblica, holding a suspended boat, which dragged five stars and what Ferrero called a “sea comet” in its net. In the artist’s intentions, the work was a symbol of the transformation of Porta Palazzo, the large market area animated by a multiplicity of cultures, and later took the title Porto Palazzo. Like other multimedia projects by Ferrero, the work was accompanied by an original soundtrack by Roberto (Tax) Farano. Since 2000, under the title Lucedotto, the work has continued to change in colour, which went from light blue to red, and in the suspended element, when the large 10 metre boat was replaced by a spider crane, the Olympic symbol (in 2006) or a pyramid timepiece that communicated weather variations in real time by changing colour, thanks to a connection with the ARPA Centre in Turin.  

Richi Ferrero (Turin, 1951) is a multifaceted artist capable of working with different expressive languages, from music to theatre, from cinema to visual art and multimedia. Active since the 1970s, he founded the Granserraglio theatre company and later Gran Teatro Urbano. Some of the most striking lighting in Turin’s historical centre is his, from the red one in Palazzo Madama to the blue one on the ponte Balbis, and several light installations, especially for the 2006 Winter Olympics. 

Silvia Maria Sara Cammarata