Luigi Ontani

The city of Turin inspired Maestro Luigi Ontani for his Light entitled Scia’Mano. The installation consists of a large, round double-sided lightbox, in which the photographs on both sides are printed on a lenticular support. In the images, always moving and ready to change based on the observer's point of view, we see the artist impersonating a shaman, to which the shape of the mask - created in Bali with I Wayan Sukarya - also alludes with a play on words - that calls for a hand. The subject evokes the magical tradition of Turin and the position of the work, on the northern edge of the Sambuy Gardens, dialogues with the point where the Fogola bookshop and publishing house frequented by the artist in the past was located, of which a sign has survived. Literary references are frequent in Ontani's work and, not surprisingly, the square in front of the Porta Nuova station has a place in the history of literature due to the tragic end of Cesare Pavese. Luigi Ontani is one of the great masters of art, and his figure has transcended Italian and Western borders for decades: he has revolutionized artistic languages ​​since the 1960s thanks to his performances, his Tableaux Vivant, his videos. He has always used photography as an artistic form to explore new identities, as a vehicle for reinterpreting the history of art, and was the first artist to "expand" it into blow-ups, as in the case of the work Scia’Mano. 

Antonio Grulli, curator of Luci d’Artista