The aim of the exhibition is to highlight the radical and experimental nature of Jean Tinguely, one of the artists who shaped the history of 20th century art, and to underline his contemporary relevance and status even today.
The show includes a nucleus of 40 works made from the 1950s to the 1990s, which will fill the 5,000 square meters of the vast Navate space at Pirelli HangarBicocca. Comprising many of his most important pieces, from his pioneering experimental kinetic sculptures to his monumental machines, the exhibition invites visitors into a unique and enthralling audio and visual environment.
The “Jean Tinguely” exhibition is organized by Pirelli HangarBicocca in collaboration with Museum Tinguely, Basel.
The exhibition is part of the program of cultural events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the artist’s birth (1925-2025).
“I am a movement artist. I started with painting, but I got stuck, I was at a dead end.” 1 This is how the artist, one of the most subversive figures of the last century, described himself. Tinguely focused all his experiments on overcoming two-dimensionality, tirelessly researching the movement of matter and objects, and constant change, with the aim of overturning the notion of a permanent, definitive composition. This artistic attitude speaks to broader existential issues, such as the uncertainty and transience of the human condition and the evolution of social and political contexts.
Jean Tinguely (Fribourg, 1925 – Bern, 1991) is considered one of the great pioneering artists of the 20th century. As one of the most important exponents of kinetic art, he revolutionized the concept of the artwork itself. At the heart of his work is the exploration of the machine, its function and movement, its noises and sounds, and its inherent poetry. Tinguely was one of the first artists to use found objects, gears, and other materials, which he then welded together to create noisy, cacophonous working machines equipped with real motors. His sculptures also have a performative quality because of their constant movement and the peculiar way in which they engage the audience. Gears, especially the wheel, are often the basic element in the works of Tinguely, who deliberately disrupts their conventional function, liberating the machine from the “tyranny of utility” and encouraging the unexpected and ephemeral in his absurd, surprising contraptions.
The exhibition at Pirelli HangarBicocca is the most comprehensive retrospective held in Italy since the artist’s death and features more than forty works from the 1950s to the 1990s, which fill almost the entire 5,000 square meters of the Navate.
The exhibition moves through a single sonic and visual choreography consisting of works in various formats, some even monumental, through which sound as well as dynamic and color components emerge, together with Tinguely’s forerunning expressivity.
The mechanical works establish a spontaneous connection with the vastness of the former industrial space of Pirelli HangarBicocca, offering the public the possibility to engage with and deeply explore the Swiss artist’s practice. His approach to art was intentionally detached from authorship, and therefore never unambiguous and definitive. Often realized as performance and sometimes set in public spaces, his art was transitory yet engaging and fascinating, thanks to its interactive elements.
The exhibition in Pirelli HangarBicocca opens with two imposing sculptures from the 1980s that Tinguely created by assembling wheels, belts, electric motors, and mechanical components, evoking the concept of the assembly line and in which noise is an important element: Cercle et carré-éclatés (1981) e Méta-Maxi (1986).
Throughout the Navate space, the exhibition follows a chronological path. The visitors are welcomed by Méta-Matic No. 10 (1959-2024), an exhibition replica of the work that the artist had realized in 1959 for the first time. The machine powered by small mechanical motors,
creates abstract drawings on paper using colored felt-tip pens. Viewer participation thus became an integral part of the piece, superseding the idea of the artist as sole creator.
The exhibition path continues with Tricycle (1954), Sculpture méta-mécanique automobile (1954) and Méta-Herbin (1955) that constitute the earliest group of works featured in the exhibition. Influenced by the geometric abstractionist experiments of the early 20th century, Tinguely made several wire sculptures titled Méta-mécaniques, i.e., “beyond mechanics” by the art critic Pontus Hultén.
Requiem pour une feuille morte (1967), part of the series characterized by black monochrome surfaces, is a monumental sculpture drawn on the artist’s experience as a set designer. The artist employs backlighting, using circular shapes to create a layered composition of geometric figures. The entire colossal wheel mechanism is connected to the movement of a single small metal leaf painted white, referenced humorously in the work’s title.
L’appareil à faire des sculptures and Gismo, both realized in 1960, are emblematic works of a new sculptural approach, using discarded objects and scrap materials, symbols of a consumer-driven society.
In Ballet des pauvres (1961) Tinguely incorporates salvaged domestic objects as well as metal bells and pots into the sculpture, suspending them with wires. All these elements are fixed to a suspended ceiling and connected to a motor, causing them to move and produce a rumbling noise.
The Baluba series evokes a dramatic historical issue that became an emblem of the struggle for freedom. The title of the Baluba series references the Bantu population that played a key role in establishing the Congo independence. Four sculptures (from 1962 and 1963) of this series are featured in the exhibition. They are comprised of salvaged metal parts, small used objects, feathers or other organic elements that make them intentionally humorous.
The exhibition also includes some small-scale sculptures with playful compositions made from found objects and elements drawn from popular culture. Le gorille de Niki (1963) features the iconic gorilla from the film King Kong (1933). Vive la muerta (1963), on the other hand, features a skeletal figure on a horse that personifies death. Maschinenbar, (1960-1985) is a long table with small sculptures made from discarded materials, toys and other tools, that can be operated electrically by buttons placed in front of the work.
Rotozaza No. 2 (1967) is an installation composed by a conveyor belt that breaks bottles. This work is poetically conceived in opposition to the production assembly line that is shifted from a purely productive context to a more playful and critical one, offering an alternative reflection on the function and purpose of objects.
Plateau agriculturel (1978) comprises parts of found agricultural machinery in the characteristic red color of the time (a rarity for Tinguely’s production) on a large iron base. The sculptures are free to move and operate on the platform devised as a stage for a visual and acoustic choreography.
Displayed together, Eos VIII (1966), Bascule V (1969) e Spirale IV (1969) are part of a series of works consisting of metal parts and moving motors that the artist painted entirely black to stand at the polar opposite of the consumerist subjects of Pop Art, at the height of their popularity at the time.
The retrospective in Pirelli HangarBicocca also features the lamp-sculptures which differ from the artist’s other works in that movement is secondary to their primary lighting function. Tinguely creates installations with colored bulbs, Lampe no.2 (1972), aligned on an arched structure, Lampe (ca. 1975-1978), installed wall and ceiling lights of monumental scale such as L’Odalisque (1989), or designed to decorate cafés and bars, Café Kyoto (1967), Mackay Messer (1991), Mercedes (1991), and Vive Marcel Duchamp (1991).
Pit-Stop (1984), Schreckenskarrette – Viva Ferrari (1985), and Shuttlecock (1990) reveal the artist’s great passion for Formula 1 and speed racing, celebrating the aesthetics of speed and the energy of movement.
The Philosophers (1988-89) are dedicated to philosophers who have theorized the anti-materialism such as Heidegger, Burkhardt, Engels, Rousseau etc. For each figure, Tinguely creates distinct worlds, offering a personal portrayal.
In Eight Philosophers, eight kinetic sculptures, united on a large iron platform designed by the artist, represent philosophers from antiquity to the 20th century. In this coral work, Tinguely gave each philosopher a humorous title, such as “Democritus in trouble” or “Plato in action”.
The work that closes the exhibition, Le Champignon magique (1989), is one of the last collaborations between Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle, an artistic duo and life partners. The sculpture takes the shape of a mushroom stalk divided into two distinct sections that symbolize the complementary nature of the two artists: “Jean was movement, I [Niki de Saint Phalle] was color”. Concurrently with the exhibition “Jean Tinguely” in Pirelli HangarBicocca, a solo exhibition dedicated to Niki de Saint Phalle (from October 5, 2024 to February 16, 2025), curated by Lucia Pesapane and in collaboration with Niki Charitable Art Foundation, is held at Mudec Museum in Milan.
The retrospective at Pirelli HangarBicocca is also an opportunity to celebrate Jean Tinguely’s close relationship with Milan, where he created some of his most ambitious projects, such as La Vittoria (1970), an iconic performance organized in front of the Duomo on the night of November 28, 1970. In the Lab room, visitors find documentation on the event in which an approximately ten meters high phallic-shaped structure (also called The Suicide of the Machine by Tinguely), launched firecrackers into the sky for nearly half an hour, with the famous song ‘O Sole Mio playing in the background, until its destruction.
This retrospective coincides with the centenary of the artist’s birth in 2025 and is part of the palimpsest of exhibitions and cultural events dedicated to the Swiss artist and here collected: Tinguely100 2.
Curated by
Camille Morineau, Lucia Pesapane and Vicente Todolí with Fiammetta Griccioli.
at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan
until February 2, 2025