Ambiente spaziale con neon was originally presented by Lucio Fontana at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 1967. It has been reconstructed for this exhibition and forms the conclusion and highlight of the tour. In Amsterdam, however, it stood at the beginning and functioned as the gateway to Fontana's art world: anyone wishing to enter his exhibition first had to pass through this immersive work of art - an experience that Fontana deliberately orchestrated in order to heighten visitors' awareness and sensitivity to the concerns of his art. Conceptually, he wanted to convey a different understanding of space.
As soon as you enter the installation, you are inevitably caught up in a special atmosphere: The walls and ceiling are completely covered in pink fabric, and the only light comes from a fluorescent tube, itself pink, which floats as a slightly vibrating line under the ceiling. The form is not only reminiscent of Fontana's works on paper. It also has a gestural quality that recalls the incisions in many of his reliefs and paintings. Using the innovative neon tube technique, Fontana was able to literally 'describe' space.
In Fontana's 'Ambiente spaziale', conventional categories of art dissolve. Space does not contain a work of art, but has itself become a work of art. The drawing, manifested here as a trace of light, conquers the space, and the space itself, drenched in colour, seems to transcend the physical boundaries of the architecture. Visitors are no longer in front of the artwork, but in the middle of it. They experience the art with their eyes as well as with their whole body.
Fontana's first 'spatial environment', 'Ambiente spaziale a luce nera' (Spatial Environment with Black Light), was created in 1949, the same year as his groundbreaking perforated pictures. Its impact on the public was surprising and overwhelming. One Italian newspaper ran the headline: 'Lucio Fontana has touched the moon'.
