9/12/2003
Maurizio Nannucci
German Parliament, Berlin
Blauer Ring (Blue Circle). A permanent neon installation. The Blauer Ring consists of a german text written in blue neon tubes forming a fluorescent, brilliantly shining loop more than eighty meters long. It is the longest neonlight-installation that the artist has ever done. The illuminated blue letters are placed just beneath the ceiling covering the whole interior wall of the circular building and forming a closed circle comprising two intersections: liberty and equality.
Blauer Ring (Blue Circle) / 1998 / 2003
A permanent neon installation in the Library of the German Parliament Berlin
/ Architect: Stephan Braunfels
The new library of the German Parliament stands north of the Reichstag next
to the bend of the river Spree. Stephan Braunfels has incorporated the
library in the block of parliament buildings consisting of the
Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus (research department, hearing room, services of
parliament). On the eastern bank of the Spree the library building rises
above in the form of a faceted glass cylinder. A 'flying roof' resting on
slender supports covers the building and faces the neighbouring block, the
Paul-Löbe-Haus, providing space for the offices of the members of parliament
on the opposite bank of the Spree.
In February 1998 the art advisory board of the German Parliament decided to
realize the project of a neon-installation proposed by Maurizio Nannucci for
the interior rotunda of the library of parliament as well as the projects of
Ellsworth Kelly and Joseph Kosuth (Paul-Löbe-Haus) as part of a limited
art-in-public-space competition.
The Blauer Ring (Blue Circle) created by Maurizio Nannucci consists of a
german text written in blue neon tubes forming a fluorescent, brilliantly
shining loop more than eighty meters long. It is the longest
neonlight-installation that the artist has ever done. The illuminated blue
letters are placed just beneath the ceiling covering the whole interior wall
of the circular building and forming a closed circle comprising two
intersections: liberty and equality. The text of Nannucci represents an
intellectual association of the artist (Anthology, 1967 / 2003). It is just
one section of a chain of thought (to be continued by the reader/the viewer)
reflecting upon  on the basis of artistic freedom  the strained relations
between possibilities and realization and the interrelationship of the
fundamental values of democratic societies, liberty and equality, in the
political sphere:
Liberty is conceivable as possibility of action among equals /
Equality is conceivable as possibility of action for liberty.
The work Blauer Ring (Blue Circle) illuminating the open rotunda places
"action", and therefore the vita activa, at the centre of the question "Was
soll ich tun?" (What shall I do?) asked by Kant and sets it in the political
arena. Political action is connected with understanding seen here as a
continuous, circular moving, never ending activity. Wanting to understand,
having to understand and being able to understand are, according to Hannah
Arendt, the primary prerequisites to assessing reality in the modern
democracy. They are essential for the formation of the identity of
responsible citizens and their participation in the complex world of
contemporanean democracies.
Completion of the Library of the German Parliament: December 10th, 2003, 11am
Information and photomaterial: Dr. Andreas Kaernbach, Art Collection of the
German Parliament, Tel. 030 227 39382
Maurizio Nannucci / Biography
Maurizio Nannucci (1939, Florence) is an international highly reputated
artist, who belongs to the inventively experimental artists of the last
decades. He explores the complex relationship between language, visual
images, space and urban landscape, inspired by linguistic and conceptual
phenomena. On the search of artistic answers to a world in continuous change
he has developed an inter-disciplinary approach of art practices which opens
up a network of cooperations in the field of art, architecture, poetry and
music.
Always targeting the goal of interdisciplinary permeability, lightness and
motion, Nannucci adopts the strategy of an undogmatic experimental approach
utilizing a wide spectrum of media and materials as means of his aesthetic
message: photography, slide projections, video, performances, artist¹s
books, sound works, broadcast, computing as well as neon installations.
Along with language and writing it is the exploration of colour on which he
has focused his work.
As early as 1967 Maurizio Nannucci began to create his first neon writings.
With colourful lighted installations the artist places word-images in a
fluid circuit that flows between colour, sign and meaning. The intense
fluorescence of the coloured neon tubes lets appear language as well as the
spatial context in a new light.
Documenting his linguistic research and colour-experiences Nannucci collects
his own writing continuously in the work in progress 'Anthology' (1967 /
2993).
Maurizio Nannucci¹s works has been shown in more than three hundred
exhibitions in museums and art galleries. He has participated several times
in the Documenta Kassel, in the Biennals of Venezia, Sydney, Sao Paulo,
Istanbul, Valencia. In cooperations with the architects Auer & Weber, Mario
Botta, Stephan Braunfels, Massimiliano Fuksas, Renzo Piano...
Recently Maurizio Nannucci has projected and realized
site-specific-installations in public and private buildings: Carpenter
Center, Harvard University, Cambridge (MA); Auditorium, Parco della Musica,
Roma; Aeroporto Fiumicino, Roma; Petersbrunnhof, Salzburg; Ilot Cantagrel,
Paris; Auswärtiges Amt, Berlin; Bibliothek des Deutschen Bundestages,
Berlin; Biennale di Architettura, Venezia; Biennale di Valencia; Fondazione
Teseco, Pisa; Kulturforum, Berlin (project).
Vernissage: Berlin, wednesday, december 10th, 2003, from 11 am
Library of the German Parliament Berlin