2011 has been the year in which the art world started to unveil part of its structure to me. At that time, I was studying for the MFA in Venice and a group of my teachers was focusing its programme on light. The same year opened ILLUMInations, the 54th Venice Biennale, which as the title suggests had a lot to do with light. I remember that, while in the Arsenale, I queued more than one hour to enter the atmospheric installation Ganzfeld “APANI” (2011) by the Californian artist James Turrell. This has been for me the very first mind lighting experience at an art exhibition.
Since then, I have been paying attention to the artists who work with light and, yes, light in art is a recurrent theme and plenty of shows are documenting and showcasing fascinating artworks worldwide. In 2013 opened the Light Show at Hayward Gallery in London which exhibited light works from the 60s to the present day. The show was followed by the massive three-venue American James Turrell’s retrospective – organised by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, in conjunction with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. Then, between 2013 and 2014 opened Aisthesis, all’Origine delle Sensazioni at Villa Panza (Italy), again, a destabilising showcase of the most influential light artists. Of the same period was L’illusione della Luce at Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection in Venice. There, I experienced one of Doug Wheeler’s Infinity Rooms where borders disappeared and the room was an infinite space of light. That installation was really disorientating so much that I can say the artist’s expertise can produce highly sensational works.
The list of light focused shows can continue ad infinitum, but what I would like to point out is that in art there are different streams and sometimes some of them connect a wide range of communities worldwide. These communities of people span from artists investigating a similar topic to art professionals who are interested in what the artists are proposing for the society and how this affects/influences/inspires it, to the audience which comes from different background like teens, families, students, art lovers, scientists, philosophers, writers, musicians… or just curious minds looking for getting an enriching experience.
This is why I am in love with art, it connects people questioning our knowledge through the artist’s investigation of something specific and proposes possible ways of interpretation of our existence, which otherwise would be just boring.