Pulsating Structuralization

Gianni Colombo—a key figure in the rise of Kinetic art in the 1950s and ’60s—worked in diverse media, including painting, sculpture, furniture design, and light installation. A founder of the art movement Gruppo T, Colombo believed art must be kinetic and participatory. His aim was to create interactive spaces that abolished the static boundaries dividing painting, sculpture, and architecture. In 1968, Colombo won first prize at the Venice Biennale with his 1967 work Spazio Elastico (Elastic Space), an interactive piece in which viewers enter a darkened room and are confronted by a shifting cube of luminescent elastic strings. This would ultimately became his most famous work (it was re-mounted at the 2011 Venice Biennale).

Milan, Italy