Luci d’Artista
Fruition
Luci d’Artista was created in 1998 by the City of Turin with the conviction that art should contribute to the common good and inhabit the streets, squares and buildings. An unprecedented and at the time innovative exhibition of contemporary art, later imitated by other Italian and foreign cities. Over the years, some of the greatest Italian and international artists have contributed works that have become part of the collective imagination, perfectly integrated into the urban fabric of the city, of which they are now a symbol. Light installations capable of reaching a large audience. But that’s not all: when – towards the end of the 1990s – Turin needed to rethink its identity, presenting itself as the City of Contemporary Art, the Luci d’Artista naturally became the image capable of conveying the message with immediacy.
Luci d’Artista is a project and heritage of the City of Turin, created by Fondazione Torino Musei with the support of Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione CRT with Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT and OGR Torino, Consulta per la Valorizzazione dei Beni Artistici e Culturali di Torino, Unione Industriali Torino, Nitto ATP Finals, Lithuanian Culture Institute and NeonLauro. Main sponsor: Gruppo Iren.
The light installations of the 28th edition of Luci D’Artista illuminated the city from 24 October 2025 to 1 Febraury 2026. During this period, the city’s squares, monuments and landmarks interacted with contemporary art, transforming Turin into a museum where light is the protagonist.
Of the four light installations, two bear the signature of the Fondazione CRT a long-standing supporter of Luci d’Artista: the prestigious neon artwork Sex and Solitude by Tracey Emin—donated to the City of Turin by Fondazione Arte CRT to mark its 25th anniversary—and the special OGR Torino project Mummer Love, which enlived the monumental courtyard with a work by Soundwalk Collective in collaboration with Patti Smith and Philip Glass.
Sex and Solitude di Tracey Emin
A neon piece measuring 106 x 804 cm, featuring the artist’s unmistakable handwriting, will be installed in the Royal Gardens, becoming part of the city’s luminous heritage. Originally created for the exhibition of the same name at Palazzo Strozzi, the work encapsulates the two central themes of Emin’s research—sexuality (sex) and vulnerability (solitude)—expressing through light the emotional intensity and poetic tension that characterize her practice. For the first time in Italy, a work by Tracey Emin was be displayed in a public space and entered a permanent collection (Luci d’Artista).
For over thirty years, Tracey Emin has used neon as a fundamental expressive medium in her art. Each creation stems from a profound inspiration—a message, a thought, or an emotion. Her first work using this material dates back to 1995.
Her connection to neon has its roots in her childhood in Margate, on the Isle of Thanet in Kent, overlooking the North Sea, where neon signs were a familiar feature of the coastal landscape. The artist draws inspiration from these early memories, evoked by the vibrant, shimmering light of the signs.
Unlike many artists who, from the 1960s onward, have used neon in standard fonts and impersonal phrases, Tracey Emin takes a radically different approach, distinguished by the use of her own handwriting paired with brief, intense, and deeply personal statements. Her texts, often incisive and direct, explore themes such as the fragility of love and human existence.
As Emin herself has stated: “Neon is emotional for everyone. Neon and argon gases make us feel something positive, which is why we find them in amusement parks, casinos, red-light districts, and bars. Neon can even help people who suffer from depression.”
In her neon installations, Emin distills poetry, mystery, color, and light—making each work an intimate reflection of herself.
Photo: Tracey Emin, Sex and Solitude, Ph. Andrea Guermani
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