Conserving the Future

The project Conserving the Future asks contemporary artists to relate to and dialogue with the spaces of the Fondazione, drawing inspiration for new expressions marked by a vital experimentation. 

The American artist Joseph Kosuth's neon lights illuminate the palace façade.
An exponent of conceptual art, he has shaped the neon tubes to trace primordial words: Abstract lines, Forms of earth (crystals), Forms of water (waves), Forms of air (clouds), Organic forms (shells).
The installation totals twelve illuminated signs placed at different heights: this is The Material of the Ornament, 1997. 

Kosuth was inspired by John Ruskin's The Stones of Venice (1851 - 1853). The classification of decorative architectural elements into categories devised by the English art critic thus becomes an ornament itself, activating unexpected relationships.