JEAN TINGUELY

Jean Tinguely’s creations over the years have been an ongoing study around the concepts of artwork, movement, interaction, and matter. His works are never just objects or sculptures, but mechanical performances in their own right, machines that move, that interact with the public. The precariousness of man and his existence, together with radical social and political changes have always been starting points for his practice. Change must be continuous. The composition cannot be defined as permanent and definitive. The performative character of his works is the aspect that has made it possible to free the machine from its inherent concept of utility, elevating it to a much higher, spiritual level. Performance enables emotions and sensations to be aroused in the observer that would not otherwise be created. Tinguely was among the first artists to use discarded materials, including gears, motors and wheels. The unexpected gives surprise. The ephemeral confers mystery.

Tinguely himself described himself as “an artist of movement“, capable of not limiting himself to the two-dimensional and static aspect of painting practice, but reasoning on the concept of experience, which is much broader, involving and immersive. The work becomes transient and chaotic. The retrospective opens just short of the centenary of the artist’s birth. The latter had a deep relationship with the city of Milan, which still decides to return that love. Some of his biggest and most ambitious projects were conceived and realised here. The most famous is the iconic performance of La Vittoria organised in front of the Duomo on 28 November 1970.