NEWS PRINCIPALE 18/49

Eduard Habicher. Memory in Motion

Museion inaugurates its 2026 exhibition program with Eduard Habicher. Memory in Motion, a show dedicated to the 70th birthday of South Tyrolean sculptor Eduard Habicher (born in 1956 in Malles).

The exhibition unfolds across the spaces of Museion Passage and the Piccolo Museion – Cubo Garutti and is free of charge. A leading figure in contemporary sculpture in South Tyrol, Eduard Habicher has consolidated a significant international presence over the decades.

His practice is particularly recognized for large-scale interventions in public space, where sculptural form engages in dialogue with architecture and urban landscapes. His works are permanently installed in both public and private contexts, including the Terme di Merano and the Fundación Pablo Atchugarry in Uruguay; additional works can be found in Berlin, along the River Spree, on the campus of the European Energy Forum (EUREF), as well as in various locations across Italy and Austria.

At Museion Passage, four monumental sculptures – Hommage, Passage, Geöffnet-aperto, and Pro-tetto – are presented in direct dialogue with the museum’s architecture. Created from industrial profiles and stainless steel, the works emerge from a process of highly precise craftsmanship: standardized materials are bent and shaped until they generate a formal tension balanced between mass and lightness. Red, a recurring element in the artist’s visual language, visually unifies the intervention.

Placed directly within the space, without pedestals, the sculptures accompany visitors along Passage, integrating into the daily flow of this open environment. Movement, openness, and spatial awareness are central elements in Habicher’s research and find in Museion Passage a context of particular resonance. As a freely accessible venue, Passage encourages a direct encounter with contemporary art, transcending the conventional thresholds of the museum.

The exhibition project is further enriched by a 360° Virtual Tour that allows visitors to virtually access the artist’s studio, offering an in-depth view of his working environment. The Virtual Tour was created by Camillo Ciuccoli, Creative Technologist.

Chiharu Shiota conquers Turin: MAO surpasses 100,000 visitors

Turin’s MAO sets a historic record: 100,000 visitors in less than four months for The Soul Trembles, the exhibition dedicated to Chiharu Shiota, which opened last October 22. An unprecedented milestone in the exhibition history of the Museum of Oriental Art, confirming the strength of a program capable of combining research, vision, and the ability to engage with the present.

The figure is even more significant when considering its steady trend: around 5,000 visitors per week, with a peak of 15,000 admissions during the Christmas holidays. These numbers tell not only the story of a successful exhibition, but also of the consolidation of a museological transformation that in recent years has broadened both the MAO’s audiences and its languages.

The Soul Trembles is not a simple solo show: it is an intervention that “inhabits” and transforms the spaces of Palazzo Mazzonis, engaging in dialogue with the permanent collections. A project of strong expressive impact, capable of raising universal questions—identity, relationships with others, life and death—and of engaging even those who do not usually visit exhibitions.

Among the most significant indicators is the expansion of the audience: alongside regular museumgoers and subscribers, there has been a growth in younger visitors—particularly in the 20–29 age group—as well as an increase in school participation. At the same time, the exhibition’s success is reflected in the digital sphere: a steadily growing online community, a rise in newsletter subscribers, and a marked increase in organic visibility on Facebook and Instagram, testifying to broader and more sustained audience engagement.

For a “niche” museum like the MAO, this result carries double significance: it demonstrates that scholarly quality can go hand in hand with strong narrative and communicative power. Shiota’s language - deep, emotional, immediate - combined with a communication strategy attentive to digital platforms and accessibility, has made the museum more recognizable and closer to contemporary sensibilities.

A record that is not just a number: it is the sign of a museum changing pace, expanding its audiences, and strengthening its position in Turin and beyond.

Giancarlo Politi, Founder of Flash Art, has passed away

Giancarlo Politi (1937–2026) has passed away. Publisher, poet, and art critic, he was the founder of Flash Art, one of the most influential contemporary art magazines internationally.

Born in Trevi in 1937, Politi played a leading role for over half a century in the history of art, making a decisive contribution to the construction of the contemporary art system.

Founded in 1967, Flash Art was one of the first global editorial platforms dedicated to contemporary art. Today it publishes English, Italian, and Czech-Slovak editions, and over time it has developed numerous international editions, including French, Polish, Chinese, Spanish, German, and Russian. On its pages, some of the central movements of the late twentieth century were born and consolidated, from Arte Povera to the Transavanguardia.

But Flash Art was also a place of discovery and launch for artists, critics, and curators who have shaped the recent history of contemporary art: from Maurizio Cattelan to Jeff Koons, Marina Abramović, and figures such as Germano Celant, Massimiliano Gioni, and Francesco Bonami. Through its pages and its spirit, Flash Art formed generations of key players in today’s art system.

Alongside Politi, a fundamental role was played by Helena Kontova, publisher and life partner, who was instrumental in building the magazine’s international identity. The editorial legacy of Flash Art continues today through Gea Politi and Cristiano Seganfreddo, together with young Lev, in the sign of a cultural continuity that over time has taken on the features of a true contemporary art dynasty.

Politi was also the creator of the Art Diary, the historic international guide to the art system, defined by Andy Warhol as “the Bible of art.”

First through the famous and much-debated “Letters to the Editor,” and later with the Amarcord, Politi continued to intervene in cultural debate, reaffirming the value of taking a critical stance.

Restless and ironic, at times paradoxical, Giancarlo Politi was above all endowed with rare energy and an outsized presence: an tireless vitality, a visionary stubbornness, and an intellectual hunger and curiosity that transformed art into a way of life even before it became a profession. He lived through art and for art, moving across his time with a free and countercurrent spirit.

His passing marks the end of an era, but leaves behind a living legacy: a way of inhabiting art as necessity, as urgency, as a form of existence.

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