LUCI D’ARTISTA 2025 | OPENING

On Friday 24 October, from 6.15 pm, Turin will once again be illuminated, with the city sky transformed into a vast stage of light, featuring 32 light installations, enhanced this year by four new works by leading figures in the art scene: Tracey Emin, the Soundwalk Collective, together with poet and musician Patti Smith, composer Philip Glass, Riccardo Previdi and Gintaras Didžiapetris. New spaces in the city will be involved and will become part of the Luci d’Artista light map, confirming the event’s commitment to renewal and expanding its presence in the urban fabric of Turin.

The light installations of the 28th edition of Luci D’Artista will be illuminated from 24 October 2025 to 11 January 2026. During this period, the city’s squares, monuments and landmarks will interact 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 will enliven the monumental courtyard with a work by Soundwalk Collective in collaboration with Patti Smith and Philip Glass.

Luci d’Artista accoglie infatti tra i suoi protagonisti un’icona dell’arte contemporanea internazionale: la britannica Tracey Emin. Si tratta della prima e unica opera pubblica in Italia dell’artista. Un ingresso reso possibile proprio grazie alla Fondazione Arte CRT che per celebrare il suo venticinquesimo anniversario ha deciso di donare alla Città una prestigiosa opera al neon dal titolo Sex and Solitude, collocata nei Giardini Reali bassi, firmata da una delle figure più acclamate al mondo, autrice, tra i molti linguaggi praticati, di celebri creazioni luminose.

Tracey Emin, Sex and Solitude, Ph. Andrea Guermani

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 will be displayed in a public space and become part of 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.

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Photo: Tracey Emin, Sex and Solitude, Ph. Andrea Guermani