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MASSIMO UBERTI

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022

-ORBITA

permanent work
curated by Davide Dall'Ombra in collaboration with MIBACT,
Gamba Castle, Chattillon, Italy

-Orbita

curated by Davide Dall'Ombra,
Val d'Aosta Museum of Contemporary Art,
Chatillon, Italy

2021

-PARRAN FAVILLE and DA SPONDA A SPONDA,

public art project,
curated by Rossana Ciocca and Sabrina Drigo,
Verona, Italy

-CERCATORI D'ORO e ELLISSE,

public art project,
curated by Rossana Ciocca and Sabrina Drigo,
Municipalities of Ceparana and Lusuolo, Italy

2020

-LOST

public art project,
curated by Marco Arosio and Rossana Ciocca,
Naviglio Martesana, Villa delle Rose, Milan, Italy

-Spazio Amato,

permanent work, 
curated by Hypermaremma,
WWF Oasis Lake Burano, Capalbio, Italy

-Una Boccata d'Arte

curated by Fondazione Elpis in collaboration with Galleria Continua,
Montovolo Sanctuary, Grizzana Moranti, Italy

2019

-Goldenrock

public art project,
Rio Val Grande, Piedmont, Italy

2018

-Belvedere, Omaggio a Giulio Romano

Palazzo Ducale, Mantua Museum Complex, Italy

-LOVED SPACE, a view not a window,

curated by Rossana Ciocca, 
Via Donatello 7, Milan, Italy

2017

-ESSERE SPAZIO

permanent work, curated by Antonio Oriente with the Soprintendenza ai beni archeologici di Napoli,
archaeological site of Santa Croce, Sapri, Italy

2016

-After the gold rush

curated by Marco Bazzini,
Spazioborgogno Gallery, Milan, Italy

2015

-Spazio Amato

curated by Angelandreina Rorro,
National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy

-Le Jardin

curated by Studio Geddes-Franchetti,
Rome Italy

-In your eyes

Three Hills Manufacture, Moscow, Russia

2014

-Light

curated by Studio Campbell-Rey, Bentley Elements,
Miami Art Basel, Miami, USA

-Landline, Brother's

curated by Alessandro Buganza,
Art Gallery, Lugano, Switzerland

2012

-Annotazioni e mancate risposte

curated by Mauro Panzera with Emanuele Bechieri
A+B Gallery, Brescia, Italy

-Linee di costruzione

Nilufar Gallery, Palazzo Durini, Milan, Italy

2011

-Never Off

Spazioborgogno Gallery, Milan Italy

2009

-Gate Now Open

N.O. Gallery, Milan, Italy

2008

-Dreams of a possible City

site-specific installation
Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy

2005

-5500°k

curated by Paolo Bonzano Artecontemporanea,
Palazzo Taverna, Rome, Italy

2000

-Lucedoro

curated by Paola Magni,
monumental complex of San Salvatore in Lauro, Rome, Italy

1999

-Bella Posta

Neon Gallery, Bologna, Italy

1998

-Abitare

Care/Of,
Cusano Milanino, Milan, Italy

-Dessin du Dessin

Vetrines du hall,
Ecole de Beaux Art de Valanciennes, France

1997

-Città invisibile

curated by Bettina della Casa,
Depero Art Institute, Rovereto, Italy

1996

-Maestà dell’invisibile

curated by Bettina della Casa,
Veragouth Arte Contemporanea, Lugano, Switzerland

1994

-La Ricchezza

curated by Sergio Risaliti, 

Brera Academy of Fine Arts, Milan, Italy

1993

-Veritas splendor

Studio Bocchi, Rome, Italy

1992

-Largado

TAG Gallery, Udine, Italy

-Il trillo del diavolo

Spazio di via Lazzaro Palazzi, Milan, Italy 

1991

-VLU

Church of San Zenone, Brescia, Italy 

1990

-Signori si chiude!

Spazio di via Lazzaro Palazzi, Milan, Italy

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023

-LUX

Helsinki Light Festival, Helsinki, Finland

2022

- E-VENTUM

Municipality of Brescia, Italy

- NOOR

Noor Riyadh
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

- Intertwingled,

curated by Martì Giusti and Inga Knòlke
Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy

- No neon no cry,

curated by Gino Iannuizzi Mambo , Bologna, Italy

Bocconi University, Milan, Italy

- ALF,

Amsterdam light festival, Netherlands

2021

- Visibilia

curated by Isabella Pugliafito Palazzo Ducale Gubbio, Italy

- Poesia e rivoluzione

curated by Leda Lunghi, Gianpaolo Abbondio Gallery, Milan, Italy

- Light water festival

Brixen, Italy

2020

- Compresenze,

Notes for a phenomenology of appearance,
Curated by Pierpaolo Scelsi and Valentina Gioia Levy Giudecca Art District,
Venice, Italy

2019

- Biennolo,

Art Biennale curated by ArtCityLab, Matteo Bergamini and Carlo Vanoni, Milan, Italy

- Segni di luce, Il disegno come progetto,

curated by sara Liuzzi, CRAC Puglia, Italy.

- Experiri, l' Arte racconta il cammino,

Cattolica University, Milan, Italy

- Icone Italiane, tra Miti e meraviglie.

Cidneon,
Brescia Castle, Italy.

2018

- Prospectum,

Casa Italia, Winter Olympics, Pyeongchang, South Korea.

- On longing and consolation,

Kunstenfestival, Watou, Belgium.

- A cavallo di un raggio di luce,

curated by Alessandro Demma, Quarelli Art Park, Roccaverano, Italy

- "ANY COLOUR YOU LIKE, AS LONG AS IT'S WHITE"

Spazio 22 Gallery, Milan, Italy

2017

- NLF

curated by Light Art Collection Amsterdam,
Norrkòping, Sweden

- Look now,

curated by Daan Rau,
Palazzo Vendramin Costa, Venice, Italy

- Bunyan

Islamic Art Festival, Sharjah Art Museum, UA Emirates.

- Andar x porte

curated by ArtCityLab, Palazzo Archinto, Milan, Italy

- WunnderMoRE

curated by MoRe Museum, Maxxi Museum,
Rome, Italy

- 8208 LDF

Como, Italy

2016

- Fondo Oro

Galleria Disegno, Mantua, Italy

- LIGHTWAVES

curated by Quays Culture, Manchester, UK.

- Anni 80/90: oggetti, processi, relazioni: l'incantesimo del quotidiano

curated by Alberto Dambruoso and Helga Marsala, Temple Gallery, Rome, Italy

- BOOKART beyond reading,

curated by Irene Moret, Sara Floris and Bruno De Blasio, Galleria Della Provincia Pordenone, Italy

2015

- Ennesima

An exhibition of seven exhibitions on Italian art, curated by Vincenzo de Bellis and Cristina Baldacci, La Triennale di Milano, Italy

-Today I Love You

Amsterdam Light Festival, Netherlands

-Interactions

curated by Maroje Mrduljaš and Anthony Sevšek, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb.

-Way Out

curated by Paolo Giordano, Spazioborgogno, Milan, Italy

- More Spaces

curated by Elisabetta Modena, Marco Scotti, Valentina Rossi and Anna Zinelli, Palazzo Pignorini, Parma, Italy

- Frammenti di immaginario-esperimenti di riuso urbano,

curated by MEME Exchenge,
Casa degli Artisti, MuTA,
Ravenna, Italy

2014

-Entre deux chaises, un livre

curated by Diane Hennebert and Christophe Dosogne, Foundation Boghossian
Villa Empain, Brussels.

- Bag, IV edition

Bocconi University, Milan, Italy

- 030.2.0 Arte da Brescia

curated by Dario Bonetta and Fabio Paris, Brescia Castle, Italy

- Con-temporary

curated by Paola Magni, YMC,
Principality of Monaco.

2013

- Neon, la materia luminosa dell'arte

curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and David Rosemberg, MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art,
Rome, Italy

- NOPX Artbook

Limeted editions, Turin, Italy

2012

- Altra natura

curated by Stefano Pezzato, Pecci Museum,
Milan, Italy

2011

- Giorni felici

edited by Davide Dall'Ombra, Casa Tesori, Milan, Italy

- A mina a mano amata

curated by Giuseppe Pietroniro, Studio Geddes-Franchetti, Rome, Italy

2010

- Vette

curated by Ilaria Bignotti, Palazzo Frisaccio, Tolmezzo, Italy

2008

- Inscape Landscape

N.O. Gallery, Milan, Italy

- Incipit

curated by Ludovico Pratesi, Palazzo Rospigliosi, Rome, Italy

-M.A.P

N.O. Gallery, Milan, Italy

- La forma configge con il tempo

curated by Mauro Panzera, Maria Grazie del Prete Gallery, Rome, Italy

2007

- Ma come mai

curated by Cecilia Canziani, Paolo Bonzano Gallery, Rome, Italy

2006

- Intangible Routes

curated by Virginia Pérez-Ratton and Tamara Diaz, Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporaneo,
San Jose, Costa Rica.

-Esercizio#1

Neon Gallery, Bologna, Italy

- Mutiplo 4

N.O. Gallery, Milan, Italy

2005

- Filoluce

curated by Rachele Ferrario, Museo della Permanente, Milan, Italy

- Entr'acte 2

Contemporary Art in the Gallizio House, Alba, Cuneo, Italy

- Multiplo 3

NO Gallery, Milan, Italy

- Giove

curated by Mario Fortunato, Museo dei Mari e dei Miti, Crotone, Italy

2003

- EV+A

curated by Virginia Pérez-Ratton, Limerick City Gallery of Art, Ireland.

- 030

curated by Francesco Tedeschi and Fabio Paris, Palazzo Bonoris, Brescia, Italy

2002

- Entr'acte

Palazzo Albiroli, Bologna, Italy

2000

- Mind the Gap

curated by Mario Gorni,
Akademie Galerie, Munich, Germany.

- Courtesy neon

DLF, Bologna, Italy

- Teatro Metropolitano Italiano

curated by Sergio Risaliti, MIART, Milan, Italy

- Preview

curated by Gino Gianuizzi and Mauro Manara, Castel San Pietro Terme, Bologna, Italy

- Periscope 2000

curated by Paolo Campiglio, Angela Madesani, Francesco Tedeschi, Fondazione Stelline, Milan, Italy

1999

- Frame

Galleria Biagiotti, Florence.

- Effetto notte

curated by Ludovico Pratesi, Napoli Sotterranea, Naples.

1998

- Generazione Media, La Triennale, Milan, Italy

- Fuori Uso

curated by Laura Cherubini Opera Nuova, Pescara, Italy

- Blue

curated by Laura Cherubini Porto Antico, Genoa, Italy

- Alta definizione

curated by Ludovico Pratesi, Centrale Montemartini, Rome, Italy

1997

- Il Punto

curated by Elio Grazioli,
Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, Italy

1996

- Modernità

curated by Marisa Vescovo,
Palazzo Bricherasio Foundation, Turin, Italy

1995

- Campo

curated by Francesco Bonami,
Corderie dell'Arsenale, Venice
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin Kunstmuseum Malmo, Sweden.

-Tradition & Innovation

curated by Francesco Bonami,
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea

- Aperto '95

Trevi Flash Art Museum, Palazzo Lucarini, Perugia, Italy

- Della Vita e dell'amore

Castel San Pietro, Bologna, Italy

1994

- Prima linea

curated by Francesco Bonami, Trevi Flash Art Museum, Palazzo Lucarini, Trevi, Italy.

- Mais ou est donc passe Eros

curated by Ami Barak and Sergio Risaliti, FRAC - Languedoc - Roussillon, Uséz, France.

-Turbare il tempo

curated by Saretto Cincinelli,
National Archaeological Museum, Florence, Italy

- Attualissima

in Italian Landscape,
Palazzo degli Affari, Florence, Italy

1993

- Arte e Altro

curated by Rossella Siligato and Ludovico Pratesi, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy

- Take the Bare Necessity

curated by Sergio Risaliti,
Gallery Anne De Villepoix, Paris, France

- Critica in opera

curated by Grazia Toderi and Mauro Manara, Castel San Pietro, Bologna, Italy

- Arte Poetica

curated by Nora Halpern and Frederik R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine,
University Malibu, California, USA

- Nuova ingegneria per l'osservazione e lampi di genio

curated by Sergio Risaliti, Villa Montalvo, Florence, Italy

1992

- Molteplici Culture

curated by Carolyn Christov Bakargiev and Ludovico Pratesi, Monastery of S. Egidio, Rome, Italy

- Entre chien et loup

Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble, France

- Hotel des Arts

curated by Franck Perrin,
"La gallerie parlée 8, Paris, France

- Retablo

Palazzo Gotico, Piacenza, Italy

-Lo Spazio di Via Lazzaro Palazzi, ovvero: tirar correndo

curated by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Spazio Ansaldo, Milan, Italy

1991

- Volpaia in vista

curated by Luciano Pistoi, Volpaia, Italy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2022

Lo spazio di Via Lazzaro Palazzi, l’archivio come opera in divenire, by Cristina Baldacci and Iolanda Ratti, text by : Baldacci, Ratti, Vettese, Colombo, Ed. Electa Museo del 900.

Materials Encyclopedia, by Elodie Ternaux, ed. Birkhauser.

Intertwingled, by Martì Guixè e Inga Knòlke, ed. Corraini.

Visibilia, by Isabella Puliafito, ed. EFG.

Un’aureola incanta la scena, by Luca Bulli, Panorama, 2 November 2022.

L Orbita di Castello Gamba, Corriere della Val d'Aosta (Il) – 27/07/2022.

L Orbita in acciaio di Uberti splende sul Castello Gamba di Châtillon, La Sentinella del Canavese – 26/07/2022.

Massimo Uberti manda in ORBITA il Gamba, Gazzetta Matin – 24/07/2022.

Castello Gamba: Accensione dell opera d arte ORBITA, Corriere della Val d'Aosta (Il) - 20/07/2022.

Un ORBITA luminosa per i 10 anni del Gamba, Gazzetta Matin – 17/07/2022.

Si accende l Orbita luminosa al Castello Gamba di Chàtillon, La vallée Notizie - 15/07/2022.

Cosa fare in settimana in Val d Aosta, Weekend di Gazzetta Matin Gazzetta Matin - Gazzetta Matin – 20/05/2022.

Visite guidate al Gamba, Gazzetta Matin – 16/05/2022.

Il Castello Gamba in “orbita” con Uberti, Corriere della Val d'Aosta (Il) – 30/03/2022.

Il Gamba in ORBITA con Massimo Uberti, Gazzetta Matin – 27/03/2022.

Pillole di cultura , Weekend di Gazzetta Matin Gazzetta Matin - Gazzetta Matin - 26/03/2022.

Un orbita luminosa di Massimo Uberti celebra i dieci anni del Castello Gamba, La vallée Notizie – 26/03/2022.

Sul Castello Gamba l Orbita di Uberti per i 10 anni del museo, La Sentinella del Canavese 25/03/2022.

Un anello di luce avvolgerà il Gamba “Ecco come è nato”, La Stampa Valle d'Aosta - Valle d'Aosta – 25/03/2022.

Sul tetto del Castello Gamba sarà installata l opera "Orbita", La vallée Notizie – 19/03/2022

2021

Una boccata D’Arte, by Elisabetta Negroni, publishing project by Fondazione Elpis and Galleria Continua, Peruzzo Editore

Light art paradigma della modernità, by Jacqueline Ceresoli, Melteni Aditore

2020

Notes on the proxemics of the ‘ non place-time, by Paola Puma, IMG Journal, October, Img-network edictions

Light art, mappatura di una fascinazione, by Sara Liuzzi, Espoarte, N.1 January.

Ode alla Maremma, Corriere della sera, Toscana, Chiara Dino.

Capalbio diventa uno spazio amato, Il Messaggero.

Spazio Amato a Hypermaremma, Arte e critica, October 2020 by Giulia Pollicita.

Progetti e utopie nel segno del neon, rivista LUCE September 2020 by Jacqueline Ceresoli.

Spazio amato l’installazione che dialoga con il territorio, AD sept. 2020, by Ludovica Amici.

Spazio amato: ode alla Maremma, Vanity fair, July 2020.

2019

Biennolo, eptacaidecafobia, by Matteo Bergamini and Carlo Vanoni by ArtCityLab, Postmedia books editore.

Artists are taking the stage,* *Domus Aureain Frame magazine n. 127, Amsterdam.

La luce come spazio possibile, interview by Massimo Villa in luce e design, september.

La luce nell’arte del nuovo millennio, by Sara Liuzzi, Cangemi Editore.

Segni di luce, il disegno come progetto by Carmelo Cipriani, Segno, Sept/Oct 2019.

Segni di luce, catalogue by Sara Liuzzi and Crac, Taranto.

Il silenzio, Nei linguaggi installativi, by Sara di Liuzzi, Cangemi Editore.

2018

La sedia di luce accende la notte, by Cristina Campanini in Repubblica, 27 July 2018;

La luce nell’arte del nuovo millennio, by Sara Liuzzi, Cangemi Editori

Bach Project, by Roberto Giambrone, sole 24, 4 November 2018;

Close up, 10 Atti introspettivi, by Sara Liuzzi, Cangemi Editor;

UN VIAGGIO DI LUCE. A Palazzo Ducale di Mantova, l’omaggio di Massimo Uberti a Giulio

Romano, by Jacqueline Ceresoli in exibart, magazine, July 2018;

ELETTRICITÀ, dalla storia della tecnica alla storia dell’arte, by Alberto Mugnaini and

Antonio Savini, Silvana Editor;

Biennale light Art Mantova, by Peter Assmann and Vittorio Erlindo, Manfredi Edizioni;

Lust for Light , by Hannah Stouffer, Gingko Press, California, USA;

Coreografie tra linee di luce, by Francesca rosso, la Stampa , 13 September 2018.

2017

Bunyan, Islamic Art Festival, cat. Published by Department of culture, nineteenth edition;

Due o tre idee sussurrate, by Giorgio Pressburger, in Corriere della sera, July 9.

2016

After the gold rush, by Marco Bazzini, Ed. Maretti, Forli.

Nanotecture: Tiny Built Things, Phaidon, London, Neon Homes and Cities of Tape: 10

Spectacular Art-Architecture Crossovers You Need to Know Now, in “Artspace” . by Rebecca Roke, 25 March;

Le jardin, in “Insideart”, by Martina Adami, n. 10 January.

Ennesima, by Vincenzo de Bellis, catalogue, Mousse Publishing and La Triennale Milano Edition.

L’archivio corale, by Cristina Baldacci, Paola Nicolin, Andrea Villani, catalogue,

Mousse Publishing and La Triennale di Milano Edition.

La città Ideale di Massimo Uberti, by Chiara Gatti, in “La Repubblica”, 26 March.

Martedì critici alla Temple University – Anni ‘80 e ‘90, in “Corriere della Sera”, Roma, 26 January. 

BookArt, beyond reading, by Irene Moret, Sara Floris and Bruno De Blasio, NAVAPress Milan.

2015

Interactions, by Vanja Zanco, cat Ed. MSU, Zagreb.

Bocs Art, by Alessandra Caldarelli, in “Insideart”, October.

Disegnare con la luce a Miami, by Vittorio Cerdelli, in “Corriere della Sera” (Brescia), 11 March.

Amicizia al neon, by Vittorio Cerdelli, in “Corriere della Sera” (Brescia), 29 November.

Martedì critici, by Alberto Dambruoso, Maretti Editore, Forlì.

Quei tableau vivant che legano le poetiche, by Rachele Ferrario, in “Corriere della Sera”, 25 November.

Amsterdam light festival, by Frank Karssing, in National Geographic Italy, Dicember.

Dimensao poetica, Intervista con Massimo Uberti, by Marcelo Lima, Estadao de San Paulo, Brasile, January 2015.

Uma casa de luz para refletir, by Michell Lott, in “Casa Vogue”, Culture, Brasile, January.

L’archivio del non realizzato, by Vera Schiavazzi, in “La Repubblica”, 1 October.

Massimo Uberti in Encyclopedia of materials , by Élodie Ternaux, Laurence King Publishing.

Amsterdam Light Festival , by Rogier Van der Heide, FLA Edition, Amsterdam.

Spazio Amato, Frammenti d’immaginario, by MEME Exchange, Ravenna.

2014

L’arte rifiutata dal museo finisce on line, by Valentina Bernabei, in “La Repubblica”, 21 June.

Landline, by Alessandro Buganza, catalogue, Brother’ Art Gallery Edition, Lugano, Swisse.

Bocconi Art Gallery, by Rita Fenini in “Panorama”, May.

Installation neon par Massimo Uberti, in “Le journal du design”, Dicember.

Entre deux chaises un livre, Fondation Boghossian Edition, Brussels.

2013

Disegni di luce, by Laura Maggi, in “Elle Decor Italia”, June.

Le città utopiche di Massimo Uberti, by Helga Marsala, in “Artribune”, Dicember.

La casa al neon, in “Living – Corriere della Sera”, Dicember.

2012

Il neon è per sempre, by Martina Adami, in “Insideart”, June.

Stanze d’artista, by Jacqueline Ceresoli, in “Exibart”, November.

Light Art in Italy, by Gisella Gellini, Maggioli Editino.

Light works experimental, by Francesco Murano, Maggioli Edition.

ArtAlgìA, by Mauro Panzera, Emanuele Becheri, Massimo Uberti, foglio d’arte, n. IX, Brescia.

Neon la materia luminosa dell’arte, by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and David Rosembreg, catalogue, Quodlibet Edition, Roma.

M’illumino di MACRO, by Adriana Polveroni, in “Exibart”, July.

2011

Giorni felici, by Davide Dell’Ombra, Casa Tesori Edition, Novate Milanese.

Light Art in Italy, by Gisella Gellini and Francesco Murano, Maggiori Edition.

2010

“Spatii Culturale” Massimo Uberti , anno III, n. 10, Buzau, Romania.

Light Art in Italy , by Gisella Gellini and Francesco Murano, Maggioli Edition.

2009

A quarant’anni , by Meri Gorni, in A mio Padre, Campanotto Edition.

2008

Città e luce, by Ilaria Bignotti Festival Architettura Edition, Parma.

Interview at Massimo Uberti,  by Anna Mangiarotti, in “Il Giorno”, 13 April.

Dreams of a possible city, by Mauro Panzera, Luca Doninelli, Sergio Calatroni, catalogue, Electa Edition, Milano.

Incipit, by Ludovico Pratesi, catalogue, Roma. Arte contemporanea, collana, n. 8, Electa Edition. Il Giornale dell’Arte, inserto Milano n. 1, May 2008.

2006

Estreco dudoso, by Virginia Pérez-Ratton, Lorenzo Bruni, catalogue, TEOR/ èTica Edition, San Josè, Costa Rica.

2005

Massimo Uberti, by Angelo Capasso,n “Tema Celeste”, n.111, Milano.

Filoluce, by Rachele Ferrario and Lorella Giudici, Charta Editino, Milano.

Città Ideali, ArtAlgìA, by Mauro Panzera, foglio d’Arte, n.VIII, Brescia.

5500 K, by Pericle Quaglianone, in “Exibart”, April.

Una città circolare tra luce ed ombra, by Rachele Ferrario, in “Corriere della sera”, 10 March.

Museo dei mari e dei Miti, by Mario Fortunato, Museum Edition, Crotone.

2003

030, by Michela Alfiero, interview with Massimo Uberti, catalogue, by Francesco Tedeschi and Fabio Paris, Brescia.

Una casa per l’arte , Delphine Borione, Ludovico Pratesi, Sergio Risaliti, Laura Cherubini,

1997- 2003, Futuro Edition, Roma.

The offical point of view, by Luigi Di Corato, Actar Edition, Spain and USA.

Lumina, by Paola Magni, in “Dorul”, Interview with MassimoUberti, XII-bis nr 165, Denmark, November.

EV+A – On the border of each other, by Virginia Pérez-Ratton, catalogue, Lcga, Limerick, Ireland.

2001

Lucedoro, by Paola Magni and Paolo Campiglio, interview with Massimo Uberti, “il Cigno” Edition, Roma.

2000

Periscopio 2000, by Paolo Campiglio, catalogue, Mazzotta Editore.

Preview, by Gino Gianuizzi and Mauro Manara, Pneuma Edition, Castel S. Pietro Terme (Bologna).

1999

Effetto notte, by Ludovico Pratesi and Paola Magni, catalogue, Castelvecchi Arte Edition, Roma.

1998

Opera Nuova, “Fuori Uso 98”, by Laura Cherubini, catalogue, Arte Nova Edition, Pescara.

Blue, by Laura Cherubini, catalogue, Philip Morris C Inc. Edition Genova.

Dessin du Dessin, by Paola Magni, catalogue, ART & RECHERCHE, Ecole de Beaux-arts Edition, Valenciennes, France.

La ferrea legge del desiderio, by Pierre Restany, in “Domus”, January. 

Generazione Media, catalogue, Generazione Media, La Triennale Edition, Milano.

1997

Verso il futuro, by Costantino D’Orazio and Ludovico Pratesi, catalogue, Art Gallery BN Editino, Roma.

1996

Ultime generazioni, by Laura Cherubini, catalogue, XII Quadriennale, Roma.

Maestà dell’Invisibile, by Bettina Della Casa, catalogue, Veragouth Arte Contemporanea Editinon.

Modernità – Progetto 2000, by Marisa Vescovo, catalogue, Electa Edition.

1995

Campo, by Francesco Bonami, catalogue, Allemandi Edition, Torino.

Tradition &Innovation, by Francesco Bonami, catalogue, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea.

Uno,cento, mille Aperto, by Helena Kontova, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 192.

Mais Où Est Donc Passé Eros, by Jennifer Hftleitner, in “Flash Art Internazional”, n.180, February.

Della vita e dell’amore, by Sergio Risaliti, Pneuma Edition, Bologna.

1994

Prima linea, by Emanuelle Koenig, interview with Massimo Uberti, Trevi Flash Art Museum, by Francesco Bonami, Giancarlo Politi Editino.

Lumière et énergie, by Maurizio Bortolotti, Interview with Massimo Uberti, EL GUIA, February.

Massimo Uberti, by Laura Cherubini, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 185

Turbare il tempo, by Alessandro Guerci, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 188.

Eros in giardino, by Sabrina Zannier, in “Messaggero Veneto”, 2 October.

1993

Take the Bare Necessity, E. Arlix, L. Moro, B. Rudiger, A. Trovato, M. Uberti, exhibition catalogue, Le Journal des Expositions, n. 6, May, Parigi.

Arte Poetica, by Nora Halpern, catalogue, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University Malibù Edition, California, 17 October.

Take the bare necessity, by Frank Perrin, in “Flash Art International”, n. 172.

Massimo Uberti, by Sergio Risaliti, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 172.

1992

Entre chien et loup, by Ami Barak, Metropolis, Paris.

Molteplici Culture, by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, exhibition catalog, Carte Segrete Edition, Roma.

European Guerrilla, Portraits d’artistes avec groupes, by Frank Perrin, in “Kanal Europe”, April –

May, 1992.

Molteplici culture, by Roberto Pinto, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 169.

Critica in opera, interview with Massimo Uberti, by Grazia Toderi, Pneuma Editino.

Lazzaro Palazzi-Milano Poesia, by Marco Senaldi, in “Flash Art Italia”, n. 171.

Lingua, by Massimo Uberti, in “Tiracorrendo”, n. 1, September 1992.

1991

Volpaia in vista, by Angela Vettese, in “Il Sole 24 Ore”, 8 August 1991.

PLACES FOR POETIC INHABITANTS

From catalog After the gold rush, Maretti Edition, Forli 2015

Light is an indispensable tool in the hands of an artist, and a material on a par with others in architecture. Directly connected to our perception of the world, light –which has always been used to enhance surfaces and volumes – since the dawn of artificial lighting has played a more independent role in formal and structural processes. With its dematerializing energy, light has contributed to the decline of the opacity of bodies and volumes that has taken over much of artistic and architectural output since the second half of the last century (1).

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The scenario has taken form in slightly more than one hundred years, precisely since neon light became a new presence in the world. The development of fluorescent and differently colored tubes by the French physicist Georges Claude opened up a ne era, starting in the first decade of the 1900s (2), just as in this new millennium LED technology has triggered another step forward in the world of technical lighting. Light has altered our relationship with panoramas and nightlife in cities, no longer only in the metropolis, revealing solid architecture in terms of essentially luminous signs, adding another dimension in the visual arts, expanding its symbolic value to match what had previously been that of painting, because no longer confined to a metaphorical plane. The spiritual essence light evoked for centuries swerved into a secular suggestion; luminous effects conquered real space, just as shadow – closely connected to light – no longer played an exclusive role in the chromatic relationship or in the creation of atmosphere. Finally, the light source, coinciding with the illuminated object, assumed full status inside the space of communication.

So light constitutes a new expressive field that artists and architects cannot overlook, precisely due to the value of novelty it has introduced and the quality of the experience it is able to provoke. Beauty, amazement, knowledge, functional quality, wellness gain new vitality from skillful use of light. These considerations of a general character should be followed by more specific ones referring to the    individual tension applied by each agent towards luminous expression, and its intersection with other themes pollinate the works. To approach the individual, to zoom in on the particular, in this case means focusing on Massimo Uberti, an artist who works with light, even making it the generative feature of all his pieces. Without light his works would not be visible, not because they are wreathed in total darkness, but because they would be deprived of their main essence, their poetic power. Luminous energy is a source of life and Uberti reinforces it in this role in the art world. In his research light does not only have the task of revealing the work, but also that of making it a material apparition, of holding it together in its conceptual coherency, offering it to the visitor as a passage outside the void. The artist’s investigation of form, though starting with some characteristics shared by his generation, that which at the start of the 1990s ran up against the dispersal of form, has eluded any constraints in terms of style, broken every rule with its free use of the widest range of media. It has been experienced in individuality with an extreme rigor that reminds us of the controlled steps of a tightrope walker. And, as for the acrobat, it is not a question of technique or artifice, but instead of a natural tendency to walk on the edge, to measure each step, to experience vertigo as a real emotion, in his case the virtual character of the luminous phenomenon in its evanescence and physical essence.

He stands in silence at the crossing, acting as its gatekeeper, waiting for the visitor to enter and thus lose his condition of inexperience. It is in this game of offering and expectation that the inner adjectival sense Uberti has of space takes on meaning, as he declares in short statements: necessary space, beloved space, awaited space, infinite space, or other space. To which we should add “being space,” i.e. the readiness for action, to become part of it. After such statements, it immediately seems clear that spatial quality is pursued in all his works, most of which are made on site; a long chain that may seem like a sort of continuous performance, always in new “theaters.” Works in which space intertwines with the tendency and taste for drawing as well as a utopian projection with respect to the society. Art as a force of warning and aspiration for a new world, as the defeat of cultural and mental shadows, remains the beacon that shows the course. In his works, once again, the experience of art and everyday life is presented as a single unified universe. And Uberti presents this unity not with incursions into sociology, geopolitics or information, but with the grace and joy of one who dwells in art and is closely engaged with it, because the work gives rise to other places and embraces past and future. If we have to identify a detour into another discipline, Uberti makes it in architecture, and even more specifically in its projective origin in which the concerns of giving form to a better world are registered. This vicinity gives force to his works around ideal cities, which in turn are the perfect meeting point of political and aesthetic thought. Starting with the new millennium, Uberti reinterprets, on various occasions, the projects of these cities governed by the superior spirit of Humanism precisely because the foundations of good habitation are rediscovered in their ideas and aspirations. But before analyzing the mature results, it is worth backtracking a bit to examine his early works, which offer a useful narrative to interpret everything that is documented in the photographic part of this volume. The first exhibition was in the space on Via Lazzaro Palazzi in 1990, a space independently organized by a group of artists, recent graduates of the Brera Academy in Milan, among whom Uberti was the youngest of all. A slide projector aims the image of an industrial building, the refuse recycling plant of the city of Brescia, at a plexiglas box containing cockroaches. The insects, which move inside the transparent container, make the slide look like a video projection that does not actually exist. The title, “… Signori … si chiude!,” (Gentlemen, it’s closing time!), undoubtedly propitiatory for a debut exhibition, in its apparently bizarre statement contains a typical expression used to clear out a bar, an invitation to participate: only those who have entered can be urged to find the exit. Two architectures, real and virtual, equally humble and inexpressive, are put into a relationship. And light immediately plays an important role because “it permits giving form to such a complex relationship”(3) because it illuminates the space and gives substance to the image. Also in the next show, at the church of San Zenone in Brescia, a slide is projected, and once again the setting is charged with presences from the past that dialogue with an image of the present. The fragments of frescoes inside the building are joined by a wooded landscape with the large inscription, in graceful characters, VLU, which in Provencal means velvet, a material that was widely and carefully represented in Renaissance painting. This installation speaks of the art-nature relationship, referencing the history of art in which different timeframes and forms intertwine. With discretion, it respects and reinvents the historical character, thanks precisely to the use of light. Uberti’s projections offer the stimulus to reflect on the presumed neutrality of space, even when it appears as a screen, and they define his tendency to technically resolve the work with simplicity, which has remained a distinctive characteristic of his work over time. With the participation in the “Imprevisto” project at Castello di Volpaia in 1991, for the first time Uberti makes the beam of light itself the protagonist. In fact, a powerful beacon placed atop an olive tree lights a pavement of golden yellow industrial tiles. Il dittatore (The Dictator), the title of the outdoor work, introduces an unexpected event in the night of the Tuscan countryside and imposes its presence as an artifact in a natural context. The contextual disorientation, though in an opposite direction, returns in the installation Vegetali di Milano presented the next year at Le Magasin in Grenoble for a group show, when the artist places a series of streetlamps in the large hall of the contemporary art center. An installation that straight from its title references the odd, innocent and poetic adventures of Marcovaldo, the protagonist of the book by Calvino of the same name, and which observed from a temporal distance marks the first step in his career for an architectural-sculptural function generated by the lighting together with the fixtures that spread it. A passage that only arrives definitively at the end of the decade; in fact, in the 1990s Uberti is engaged in reflections around the use of the photographic image, which as we know is a way of “writing with light,” and later on its virtual nature, thanks to the advent of new software. This direction of research, however, does not prevent Uberti from continuing his experimentation with on-site installations, in which he continues to use projections or backlighting, as happens in the exhibition “La maesta` dell’invisibile” or in “Empedocle” at Studio Bocchi in Rome. The themes are still those of art history (for the Roman show he uses a plaster copy of the Cavaspina in the Capitoline Museums), of viewing and distortion, internal-external relations, materials of various nature. In a moment in which also in art what is sought is the media event, Uberti reacts by trying to follow a different path, closer to his ethic as an artist, and more closely focused on the universal values of the work. His challenge has always been to shine light on the less familiar side of things. This is the period of a series of photographic works with a visionary tone, in which the predominant figure is the house or a fragment thereof, suspended amidst clouds or doubled in the night. These are joined by images of lit windows in the darkness, which in continuity with what has been done so far take the title of Sipari luminosi (Luminous Curtains) or Abitare (Dwell). This title is again found in the backlit drawings of a crouching body or a window with its blinds raised.

Finally, it is also used for that simple house, almost a child’s drawing, made in 1999 with just 15 neon tubes, like luminous linear pencil strokes. Here we can see confirmation of what has been done to date, but also the start of his way of operating directly with light in space. Furthermore, this synthetic structure brings to completion his dialogue with architecture identified as the “cradle of human and social existence, place of meaning, place of foundation.” (4) From now on the fragile contours drawn by neon that allude to the presence of man and whose emotional content is expressed by a void continue without interruption in his work. They are citations of architectural fragments that appear like symbolic more than real theatrical wings or sculptures, luminous cages facing infinity, as also evoked by the titles of some of the works dated 2005 and 2006. The themes return of an iconography of the past, as in Uno studio or the simpler “desk,” while the link with the design drawing, precisely because there are lines in space, becomes closer, more literal: as if the structure had been projected into space with respect to the drawing. But here too, Uberti is ready to sidestep, to shuffle the deck, to transform it into writing because he is aware of the fact that “if you move they do not catch you”, as he wrote in 2005 in a tribute to Pinot Gallizio. His luminous neon statements only partially evoke the conceptual radicalism of the 1960s; Uberti softens them in terms of the typical legacy of Middle Eastern culture of drawing as a form of writing, and of the lesson of Lucio Fontana and his “arabesque” for the 11th Milan Triennale in 1951. The already mentioned statements regarding the value to attribute to space take on an environmental dimension and light up their destinations with new meaning. Altro spazio (Other Space) made for Museo Pecci Milano amplifies the museum impact of the operation of Centro Pecci of Prato, that of opening a new “showcase” (5); Spazio amato (Loved Space), reprised for the large entrance hall of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna in Rome, invites the visitor to reconsider the value of a museum as a common asset, while the same phrase, with less orderly characters and outdoors, in Ravenna, declares the love for art and its diversity. Though in a public space, Today I Love You, a permanent work on the bridge in front of the central station in Amsterdam (made during the Amsterdam Light Festival in 2016), offers each individual observer its moving and playful message, documented inthousands of snapshots posted on Instagram. Strictly private, but of no less impact for those lucky enough to have access to their homes, are the inscriptions “esserespazioamatonecessarioinfinito” (to-be-beloved-necessary-infinite-space) or “il faut cultiver notre jardin” (we must cultivate our garden), with which Uberti plays once again with ethics and aesthetics. Never Off, on the other hand, written in neon and presented for the exhibition of the same name at Spazioborgogno in Milan in 2011, seems instead to allude to light as a source of infinite energy. The exhibition offers a variety of luminous signs that no longer form a single environment but individual elements (an approach also seen in other exhibitions from the same period), though the vision is one of great unity, and in spite of the fragmentation the parts form a single tableau. Mai spento, “never off,” returns obsessively in the show, almost as if to convey Uberti’s vigilance with respect to art and light, but also the phantasmatic character of his works that can “die” simply when a switch is turned off. When Uberti, in 2015, at Art Basel Miami, for the English automaker Bentley, makes the work Drawing of a drawing, the piece is not an architectural phantom; like the other luminous structures, it does not have the same overtones as the Franklin Court by Robert Venturi in Philadelphia. The structures are always something alive, ready for entry, though they exist only in terms of their neon boundaries; they are sources of ethical and aesthetic energies, aspiring to measure, the tact of proportions, to beauty, in the final analysis. One good example in this direction towards the ideal of life and art is the large public installation made in 2008 at Fondazione Le Stelline, entitled Tendente infinito. In the already striking Magnolia cloister, Uberti reproduces on a large scale the drawing of Sforzinda, the ideal city designed by Filarete in 1465 circa. It is a suspended plan made with neon tubes that acts as a filter between the real city of Milan and the sky, almost as if to indicate a new constellation and therefore a new route. In the words of the artist, it is a “city that does not have man at the center, that is still capable of dreaming, returning to gaze upward.” It can truly be said that Uberti not only sheds new light on one of the most characteristic threads of Italian architectural thought (6), but also inverts the perspective, since what was previously seen from above is now visible from below; he proposes the possibility of living in the ideal city in a real way, just as several years earlier he offered, on a different scale, the dimension of walking in the cities reproduced on carpets woven in 2004 in Rajasthan, or like the mirror cities in which it is possible to see one’s reflection, becoming part of them, in 2013. Participation is one of the fundamental aspects of Uberti’s work, and light is a means of creating relations. Of course Uberti is well aware of the fact that an ideal city cannot exist, and that it cannot even be imagined outside of art. But he also knows that art is one of the most powerful messages to indicate a different future. While architects and urbanists can build only functional cities, the artist can take the more problematic position of reiterating utopia. So eight years after that experience, Uberti again evokes the ideal city in the exhibition “After the Gold Rush” at Spazioborgogno. This time the title takes its cue from a song by Neil Young, but it alludes to the gold of the space blankets, the metallized thermal covers used in emergency situations, by now in a massive way due to the rescues of hundreds of thousands of refugees attempting to reach Europe across the Balkans or by sea, heading for Lampedusa and Sicily. The bright, golden skin of this industrial material used to wrap human beings and save lives becomes the “module” on which to write new words and to draw, once again, as a plan or a perspective, the city of Sforzinda. On the floor, a portion of the neon work from 2008 is placed, so it can continue to light up the world with its poetry, but also so it can amplify the reflectivity of what springs from an urgent situation of the present. Repetita iuvant, just as poetry has to help reality and ethics has to unite with aesthetics: now that the gold rush is only a misleading glimmer, we have to necessarily build the ideal city in which to live in harmony, in the sharing of space but also of values. Uberti, in all these years, has moved step by step on these boundaries, with surprising refinement and elegance, to offer places for poetic inhabitants.

Marco Mazzini

NOTES

(1) Though in art the first experiences date back to the start of the 1930s with the big play of lights and shadows of LaÅLzloÅL Moholy-Nagy in Licht-Raum Modulator or the first neon sculptures by the Czech artist Zdeněk PešaÅLnek, it is since 1951, when Lucio Fontana made that arabesque in space entitled Struttura al neon per la IX Triennale di Milano, that this new dimension begins and spreads.

(2) “Neon – la materia luminosa dell’arte,” curated by David Rosenberg and Bartolomeo Pietromarchi, Quodlibet, Macerata, 2012.

(3) Mauro Panzera, Under the Sky of Milan, in Massimo Uberti – Dreams of a possible city, Electa, Milano, p. 14.

(4) Mauro Panzera, op. cit., p. 34.

(5) In April 2010, during my term as director, Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato opened a space at Ripa Ticinese 113 in Milan, for the display of items from the museum’s permanent collection. This project came to an end in March 2014.

(6) Fabio Isman, “Andare per citta` ideali”, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2016.

BIOGRAPHY

Graduated at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts. He made his debut in the early 1990s after his experience as a member of the group of artists of the Lazzaro Palazzi space in Milan, an artistic movement that became part of the archives of the Museo del 900.

In 2008, he realised the large sculpture "Tendente Infinito" in the exhibition Dreams of the possible city, at the Fondazione Stelline in Milan.
In 2013, he was selected by the European Commission for two workshops in Milan and Berlin on the theme: New Narrative for Europe.

He has taken part in many solo and group exhibitions in recent years: "Spazio Amato" at the Galleria d'arte Moderna in Rome (2015), in the same year "Today I love You" exhibited in Amsterdam, Manchester, Ontario, Washington, Shanghai and Dubai and "Drawing of drawing" during Miami Art Basel.

He then created "ESSERE SPAZIO" (2017) in collaboration with the Superintendency of Archaeological Heritage of Naples and created "Prospectum" (2018) on the occasion of the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

In 2020 he created "SPAZIO AMATO", a permanent work exhibited in the WWF Oasis of Lake Burano.
During the Dante Year, he collaborated with UNESCO for the City of Verona, creating "PARRAN FAVILLE" and "DA SPONDA A SPONDA" (2021).

Winner of the MIBACT competition for the Contemporary Art Plan, he created "ORBITA" (2022), a permanent work located at the Gamba Castle in Chatillon.
In recognition of his public art works, "CITTA' IDEALE" (2022) was exhibited in Riyadh, during the NOOR Riyadh Festival.