FPT Industrial, a leading brand in the powertrain sector with its beating heart of its production in Turin, has partnered with Artissima to present a special project by Christian Holstad that combines art and sustainability, and is a Main Sponsor of the new installation by Roberto Cuoghi for Luci d’Artista
Turin, October 23th, 2019
ARTISSIMA Christian Holstad – Consider Yourself As A Guest (Cornucopia)
Turin, Oval Lingotto (pavilion entrance) Press Preview – Thursday, 31 October 2019 Open to the public –1 to 3 November 2019
LUCI D’ARTISTA Roberto Cuoghi – M I R A C O L A
Edited by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
Turin, Piazza San Carlo
Opening – Tuesday, 29 October 2019, 7.30 pm
Public display 29 October – 12 January 2020
FPT Industrial, the global powertrain brand of CNH Industrial, and Main
Sponsor of the Italian Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2019, has strengthened its commitment to supporting contemporary art during two exceptional art events in the city of Turin: Artissima and Luci d’Artista.
The company, a leader in the powertrain sector with the beating heart of production precisely in Turin, is recognized worldwide for its state-of-the-art “green factory”. The collaboration with Luci d’Artista and Artissima confirms the Brand’s vision towards increasingly focused support for cultural projects that address innovation, research and sustainability.
“This is an important opportunity for our Brand to support the cultural life of our home city; something we hold close to our values and our vision,” states Carlo Moroni, Head of Communication, FPT Industrial. “Christian Holstad’s project at Artissima tells the story of FPT Industrial’s constant commitment to sustainability, a necessary goal for a Brand that produces cutting-edge engines that are increasingly respectful of the environment. On the other hand, the project by Roberto Cuoghi, due to its visionary nature and its link with Leonardo da Vinci, a historical figure capable of looking to the future and to innovation in a unique way, could not have found a more enthusiastic partner in us”.
CHRISTIAN HOLSTAD, Consider yourself as a guest @ Artissima
FPT Industrial has become a Partner of Artissima 2019, presenting the installation Consider yourself as a guest (Cornucopia) by Christian Holstad (born in 1972 in Anaheim, California).
Invited to participate by Milovan Farronato expressly because of his focus on consumer issues and their impact on the world, the American artist has created a large cornucopia, the ancient symbol of good fortune and abundance, produced entirely with plastic waste. The historical meaning of this iconic image is thus distorted by the artist, thereby acquiring an unprecedented negative sense of “excess”.
The project is a reflection of the urgency required to address sea and ocean pollution around the world, literally “bringing to the surface” an extremely current issue, rather than leaving it hidden beneath the seabed.
“A past neighbor had a sign on their door which read ‘Consider yourself a guest’. I walked past it every day for years and it became an unintended
mantra,” says Christian Holstad. “Our dependence on plastics is not sustainable. Its effects are swelling into continents in our waters. Consider yourself as a guest (Cornucopia) is a reflection of our impact on the planet and our consumptive roles within the growing plastic mass.”
On display from 9 May to 12 June, 2019 at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, on the waters of the Grand Canal and in the courtyard of the University, Consider yourself as a guest (Cornucopia) will arrive in Turin and will become the key feature of a new special outdoor installation that will welcome guests at the entrance to the Artissima fair.
FPT Industrial is also sponsoring the Artissima Walk guided tours program, the ART FOR THE FUTURE tours that, from Friday to Sunday at 3:00 pm, will give visitors the opportunity to discover the fair in a personal and exciting way by traveling down a path focused on art research, addressing environmental issues, sustainable development, protection of biodiversity and adapting to climate change.
On the other hand, on Friday 1 November at 2:00 pm, Christian Holstad will participate in the talk Make a Better World Now!, an opportunity to deepen the relationship between art and sustainability by presenting Consider Yourself as a Guest (Cornucopia) and the project Red Regatta, by artist Melissa McGill. Vittorio Calabrese, Director of Italian Art Magazine, will also take part in this talk coordinated by Anna Daneri, curator of the Meeting Point 2019 program.
FPT INDUSTRIAL MAIN SPONSOR OF LUCI D’ARTISTA
FPT Industrial is a Main Sponsor of Luci d’Artista, the Turin event established in 1998, and unique in the world as an actual open-air contemporary art exhibition that illuminates the squares and streets of Turin every year. M I R A C O L A, the latest Luce d’Artista exhibition designed by the Italian artist Roberto Cuoghi (born 1973 in Modena) and curated by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, is an unprecedented, unique sensory experience in one of Turin’s main squares, Piazza San Carlo, where public lights, and those in private apartments will periodically fade in and out creating a choreography of lights that will immerse passers-by in moments of absolute darkness and then re-illuminate the square.
Created on the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death (1519), the work, a homage to the master’s theories on the relationship between light and shadows, joins a series of initiatives supported by FPT Industrial that have celebrated this important anniversary (such as the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition, Man is a model of the world, hosted by the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice).
With M I R A C O L A, once again Cuoghi creates a situation in which the central role of the viewer and their ability to interact with the work of art are fundamental. The artist, in fact, creates installations that act as psychosensory devices or machines capable of taking the visitor to another space and time. A new, poetic,
and alienating approach that uses the public’s sensory perception to expand the potential of the work to infinity.
The work was made possible by the City of Turin, in collaboration with Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art (in Rivoli town), with the support of IREN (the Italian company operates in the sectors of electricity), the Turin Foundation for Culture, Fondazione Contrada, and with the sponsorship of FPT Industrial and with the generous contribution of Hauser & Wirth.