Jean Tinguely
Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan
From October 10th, 2024 until February 2nd, 2025
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.

opening image: Jean Tinguely, Pit-Stop,1984. Formula 1 auto parts, scrap iron, 4 x 16 mm, film projectors; 360 x 600 x 600 cm. © Museum Tinguely, Basel. Jean Tinguely © SIAE, 2024. Photo Christian Baur.
“My machines are a celebration of the beauty of imperfection.”


“Immutability does not exist. All is movement. All is static.”

This exhibition will truly be a rare opportunity to go through Tinguely’s entire artistic evolution, exploring his practices, uses, objects and works. The route is an immersive and choreographic exhibition. A sound and visual setting accompanies the visitor through works of various formats, some of them monumental. The noise component so dear to the artist will emerge. The mechanical works in the installation have an innate and spontaneous link with the spaces of the HangarBicocca industrial building. The large, bare spaces are once again the perfect setting for an art conceived as a performance, and often placed on purpose in non-museum spaces, precisely in order to fully engage and fascinate the eye of the beholder.
For further information pirellihangarbicocca.org.


