Starting Friday, October 24, Turin once again lights up with Luci d’Artista. Long-time supporter of the project, Fondazione CRT continues to illuminate the city with new initiatives that merge art, innovation, and participation. Of the four light installations joining the artistic heritage of the 28th edition, two bear the signature of Fondazione CRT, together with Fondazione Arte CRT and OGR Torino: the prestigious neon work Sex and Solitude by Tracey Emin, donated to the City of Turin by Fondazione Arte CRT to mark its 25th anniversary, and Mummer Love, the special project by OGR Torino featuring Soundwalk Collective, Patti Smith, and Philip Glass.
“With two new light installations donated to the community, Fondazione CRT renews and strengthens its long-standing support for Luci d’Artista,” said Anna Maria Poggi, President of Fondazione CRT. “These works by international figures express our commitment to promoting wonder and participation: Tracey Emin’s poetic neon creation, donated by Fondazione Arte CRT for its 25th anniversary, and the special OGR Torino project by Soundwalk Collective with Patti Smith and Philip Glass, transforming the monumental courtyard into an immersive experience. Through Luci d’Artista, we want to keep projecting Turin among Europe’s capitals of contemporary art and creativity.”
Sex and Solitude
The 106 × 804 cm neon work reproduces the unmistakable handwriting of Tracey Emin and is installed in the Royal Gardens. Originally created for the eponymous exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi, the piece embodies 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 work. For the first time in Italy, one of Tracey Emin’s works is presented in a public space and becomes part of a permanent collection (that of Luci d’Artista).
For over thirty years, Emin has used neon as a key expressive medium. Each of her creations arises from deep personal inspiration—a message, a thought, or an emotion. Her first neon piece dates back to 1995, and her connection with the medium traces to her childhood in Margate, a seaside town in Kent where bright neon signs lit up the coastal landscape. Unlike many artists who have used standardized fonts and impersonal messages since the 1960s, Emin adopts her own handwriting, pairing it with short, intense, and deeply personal phrases exploring themes of love, fragility, and existence.
Emin believes neon has the power to evoke emotion. As she has said:
“Neon is emotional for everyone. Neon and argon gases make us feel something positive—that’s why we find them in funfairs, casinos, red-light districts, and bars. Neon can even help people who suffer from depression.”
Her neon installations distill poetry, mystery, color, and light, making each piece an intimate reflection of herself.
Mummer Love
Soundwalk Collective. Ph. Nan Goldin
The East Courtyard of OGR Torino, the innovation hub of Fondazione CRT, will be illuminated by Mummer Love, an installation created by Soundwalk Collective together with Patti Smith and Philip Glass. The work invites visitors on a sensory journey into the poetic world of Arthur Rimbaud, evoking the poet’s African years through ambient recordings made in his house in Harar, Ethiopia, interwoven with Sufi chants and piano compositions by Philip Glass. Patti Smith’s voice, reciting verses from Illuminations, guides the audience through a meditative exploration of memory, sound, and spirituality.
As Stephan Crasneanscki, who founded Soundwalk Collective with Simone Merli, explains—artists known for installations and compositions that explore sound as a way to investigate the relationship between humans and their environment—
“Through Sufi chants, one accesses other levels of self and consciousness. This connection, like poetry, is a universal language—a language of the soul, for the soul.”
Like an intimate archaeology, Mummer Love transforms the East Courtyard of OGR into a resonant chamber where art, poetry, and sound research intertwine, allowing places and memories to transcend time and come alive again through listening.
