Pinacoteca Agnelli, Turin, Italy
Ongoing
Paul Pfeiffer's new site specific intervention for the outdoor space of La Pista 500, titled Vitruvian Figure (Juventus), developed thanks to the collaboration with Juventus, will unfold through an immersive sound installation accompanied by a large-scale image presented on the Billboard.
Vitruvian Figure (Juventus) fits perfectly into this decades-long investigation, while also interacting with the history of Turin and the Lingotto in particular, a site linked to performativity, speed and production in relation to an object of mass consumption – the car – which is also a symbol of desire and worship. Developed in collaboration with Juventus, Pfeiffer’s composite work unfolds in two areas of La Pista 500 as an immersive sound installation and a large-scale image. Under the Bolla, an audio mix recreates the call-and-response between ultra fans and their “capo” (conductor of chants), sourced live from the field of Turin’s Allianz Stadium during the Juventus-Inter game of September 13, 2025, one of Italy’s most heated rivalries, which resulted in a 4-3 win for Juventus. The live recordings have been post-produced to emphasize how the conductor’s coordination of the songs, drumbeats, and other synchronized displays transforms the multitude into a unified voice. On the billboard, Pfeiffer has used 3D modeling software to digitally expand Allianz Stadium to accommodate one million seats. With this image, the artist seems to point out how technology in the future might bridge the gap between physical collective interaction and individual virtual experience mediated by digital screens. With a clear reference to Vitruvius, author of the only architectural treatise to come to us from antiquity – dating back to the 1st century BC – Pfeiffer develops a new, digitally manipulated stadium. The millennia-old architecture is here projected into a hypothetical future, leaving the viewer to consider its possible urban, behavioral, social, and political implications.
Pfeiffer was the winner of the 2024 La Pista 500 Prize, an award created in 2023 in collaboration with Artissima, one of Italy’s most important contemporary art fairs. The artist, whose work was presented at the fair by Thomas Dane Gallery, was selected for the prize’s second edition by a jury composed of Meriem Berrada, Director of MACAAL — Musée d'Art Contemporain Africain Al Maaden, Marrakech, and Fatima Hellberg, Director of mumok Museum moderner Kunst, Vienna, alongside Sarah Cosulich and Pietro Rigolo, Director and Chief Curator of Pinacoteca Agnelli, respectively.
The prize will return this fall for its third edition, offering one artist from among those exhibited at Artissima the opportunity to create a new work for the Pista 500 Billboard.