Joseph Kosuth illuminates the Museo del Novecento

Vedere le cose (per A.S.), 2025, Joseph Kosuth’s site-specific installation, joins the collection of the Museo del Novecento.

The artwork will be inaugurated on July 1 in the presence of the artist.

Joseph Kosuth, Vedere le cose (per A.S.), 2025, neon installation, warm white neon text installed directly on the façade. Courtesy of Lia Rumma Gallery, Milan/Naples.

Vedere le cose (per A.S.) (Seeing Things (for A.S.)), 2025, Joseph Kosuth’s new site-specific installation, has been “switched on” on the side façade of the Museo del Novecento. The work, a “writing of light” extending for 28 metres along Via Marconi, transforms the Museum’s exterior wall into a space for reflection in dialogue with the city. Acquired by the Municipality of Milan and now part of the Museum’s permanent collection, it will be officially inaugurated on July 1 (7:00 pm) by Councillor for Culture Tommaso Sacchi, in the presence of the artist.

“The present, which is in time what the façade is in space, prevents us from seeing things in depth”: this is the sentence, taken from Scritti dispersi (1943–1952) by Alberto Savinio, that Joseph Kosuth chose to realise in neon on the Museum’s façade.

The metaphysical reflection evoked by Savinio thus meets Kosuth’s conceptual language, offering a meditation that invites viewers to move beyond the immediacy of the present and seek new possibilities of meaning in the depth of things.

The installation arrives at a particularly significant moment for the Museo del Novecento, which, with the launch of construction works for its expansion into the second Arengario tower, is entering a new phase in the transformation of its spaces and identity.

“Kosuth’s work ideally builds a bridge towards the second Arengario, destined to become an extension of the Museum, accompanying it to the threshold of the contemporary,” says Councillor for Culture Tommaso Sacchi.

The project originated within the framework of Metafisica/Metafisiche (Metaphysics/Metaphysics), the major multi-venue exhibition curated by Vincenzo Trione and produced by Palazzo Reale, Museo del Novecento, Grande Brera–Palazzo Citterio and Gallerie d’Italia with Electa, which explores the persistence of the metaphysical vision from the early twentieth century to the present day. While the exhibition project comes to a close on June 21, Kosuth’s work extends its reflection into the urban space, leaving a visible and permanent mark on the city.