SALVO, Monica Bonvicini, Chalisée Naamani

Salvo: Arrivare in tempo / Arriving on time
This autumn, Pinacoteca Agnelli will present the most extensive exhibition dedicated to the Italian artist Salvo (b. Leonforte 1947–d. Turin 2015). 

A pioneering artist of the second half of the twentieth century, Salvo worked independently from artistic currents. Born in Sicily in 1947, Salvo moved to Turin in 1956, where he lived for the rest of his life. Early on, his artistic approach, focused on self-representation and language, was influenced by Conceptual Art and Arte Povera. With a strong passion for literature and profound knowledge of art history, Salvo transitioned to figurative painting in 1973, an unconventional choice that has only recently been grasped in its implications. 

For over forty years, Salvo pursued a unique exploration and critical reflection on the medium of painting, reworking art historical subjects, portraits, still lifes, and urban and natural landscapes. At Pinacoteca Agnelli, a retrospective journey through his oeuvre will exemplify how Salvo’s painting practice was never in contrast with his conceptual work, but absorbed the latter’s intentions into an unexpected yet consistent artistic path. 

Featuring more than 180 artworks, the exhibition will be organised around eight chapters, focusing on recurring motifs and themes in Salvo’s long career. The show will extend to Pinacoteca Agnelli’s permanent collection and put his work into dialogue with works by Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini, Henri Matisse, and Canaletto among others. 

The exhibition is curated by Sarah Cosulich & Lucrezia Calabrò Visconti and developed in collaboration with the Archivio Salvo. Arrivare in tempo will be accompanied by a book published by JRP in mid-December with contributions from international writers offering new interpretations of Salvo’s work. 

New installations on La Pista 500
Monica Bonvicini, Come Run With Me, 2024
Commissioned for La Pista 500, Monica Bonvicini’s new work is a monumental neon installation on one of the parabolic curves of the track on the roof of the Lingotto. Her site-specific intervention is based on a series of drawings developed in the early 2000s, in which Bonvicini selected song lyrics from the 1970s that contain the word “run” as an expression of change and movement. Measuring around 30 metres, the new installation creates a choreography of light on La Pista 500 which alludes to themes of escape, speed, and freedom. 

Chalisée Naamani, My Mother Was My First Country, 2024
Winner of the 2023 Pista 500 Prize in collaboration with Artissima, the Franco-Iranian artist Chalisée Naamani (1995, Paris) was commissioned to create a site-specific project for the La Pista 500 billboard. My Mother Was My First Country engages with the propagandistic function of the billboard in conveying political messages in public spaces as if they were commodities. In contrast with the track’s industrial environment and the urban context of billboards, the work echoes the iconography of the mother and child juxtaposing the themes of motherhood with the right to civic life. 

Also on view on La Pista 500
Thomas Bayrle, Julius von Bismarck, VALIE EXPORT, Sylvie Fleury, Marco Giordano, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Alicja Kwade, Louise Lawler, Finnegan Shannon, SUPERFLEX.

About Pinacoteca and La Pista 500
Located in the former FIAT car factory of Lingotto in Turin, Pinacoteca Agnelli was relaunched in 2022 with a new contemporary mission. The exhibition programme comprises temporary exhibitions and outdoor site-specific installations on the car testing track on the building’s rooftop, now a suspended garden. Pinacoteca Agnelli also features an important permanent collection with masterpieces by artists such as Canova, Canaletto, Picasso, Manet, Modigliani and Matisse as well as exhibition projects aimed at reactivating the collection through collaboration with contemporary artists and institutions. The new identity of the Pinacoteca creates a link between past and present, through its direct dialogue with the unique history, architecture, and legacy of the Lingotto building that houses the institution.

Press contacts
International—Sam Talbot
Kitty Malton, kitty [​at​] sam-talbot.com, T +44 7514803577.

Italy—PCM Studio di Paola C. Manfredi
Francesca Ceriani, francesca [​at​] paolamanfredi.com, T +39 340 9182004.