Euridome, a 'Light' for the Turin Council and Unione Industriali Torino

(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - The art world intertwines with the business world "to create value and beauty". The words of Marco Gay, president of Unione Industriali Torino, summarise the meaning of Euridome, the light installation by Erik Saglia promoted by the Turin Confindustria association and the Consulta per la Valorizzazione dei Beni Artistici e Culturali di Torino and produced by Artissima. A work that becomes part of the Constellation circuit of Luci d'Artista, the event that transforms the city of Turin into an open-air laboratory of light installations by great Italian and international artists every year in winter.

"Euridome is not just a light installation, but a symbol of our commitment to promoting culture and innovation, which will remain permanently on the façade of our headquarters, also as a legacy of the celebrations of Turin Capital of Enterprise Culture; a recognition that fills us with pride and testifies to the vitality and creativity of our entrepreneurial fabric," continued Gay. The work has in fact been installed on the façade of the building housing the headquarters of Unione Industriali Torino and Consulta, and from 25 October, the inaugural day of Luci d'Artista, it will continue to be enjoyed by the public over time. An initiative that, as the president recalled, is part of the programme celebrating Turin as Capital of Enterprise Culture 2024. These lights "are a tangible sign of hope and well represent the concepts underlying the actions of Consulta and Unione Industriali. The business-culture binomial is inalienable,' emphasised Licia Mattioli, president of the Consulta per la Valorizzazione dei Beni Artistici e Culturali di Torino, who added, 'culture is an economic and inclusive lever that creates work, wellbeing and increases the attractiveness of the territory.

Erik Saglia, an artist born in Turin in 1989, conceived this new site-specific installation in continuity with his last series of works, Manifesti Satellite, inspired by the natural satellites of the solar system. The artist recreates a cosmogony made up of lines that cross, curve, add and subtract to create plots that can become containers of knowledge. An orbital movement around the façade of the Unione Industriali Torino building, where the Consulta has also been based since its foundation in 1987, evokes the attractions and influences of satellites generated by the planet they belong to, which, in this case,promotes through culture, the development of the territory. Each satellite in the work has the ability to reflect light, symbolising the dissemination of knowledge and ideas, and aims to enhance every single enterprise, every single heritage recovery and development project, every single satellite idea that contributes to the evolution of a society based on innovation and culture, core values of the work of Unione Industriali Torino and Consulta.

The union between culture and business is therefore capable of generating opportunities, wellbeing and social inclusion, and this work, to quote Marco Gay once again, 'represents a tangible example of profitable collaboration between the public and private sectors'. Indeed, many institutions have collaborated to make this initiative possible: from Unione Industriali Torino to the Consulta per la valorizzazione dei beni artistici e culturali di Torino, in the person of its president Licia Mattioli, as well as the president of the Fondazione Torino Musei, Massimo Broccio, the director of Artissima, Luigi Fassi, and the curator of Luci d'artista, Antonio Grulli.

Luci were born in 1998 as illuminations to celebrate the Christmas festivities and immediately set an ambitious goal: to create a public collection expressing "a high culture capable of communicating with everyone", as Fiorenzo Alfieri, the event's creator, put it. Luci d'Artista is today a true institution for contemporary art that is active all year round and increasingly open and sustainable. The Constellation and Academy of Light sections are central to the event and make it possible to involve major artists and make Luci d'Artista increasingly inclusive and differentiated throughout the year.