“Untitled” (1991)

Pinacoteca Agnelli enriches the project on the Pista 500 by exhibiting an artwork that extends to the entire city of Turin. Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ work “Untitled” (1991) consists of an image installed on the Pista 500 billboard and on multiple billboards throughout the city.

“Untitled” (1991), depicting an unmade double bed, is installed with no identifying information, allowing viewers to encounter the work in the urban landscape without an immediate explanation. While the work was first exhibited in 1991, prompting an exploration of the boundary between public space and private life in an era marked by the HIV pandemic, the work allows for new interpretations and associations in each context of its display. A significant early exhibition presented the work on billboards across the boroughs of New York City, and the work has subsequently been presented in various places worldwide. The intimate, domestic, and commonplace image creates a strong contrast with adjacent advertisements, challenging social norms and bringing taboo topics such as death, pain, and loss into public space.

The city of Turin holds significant meaning in the history of Gonzalez-Torres’s work, as the artist was invited to Castello di Rivara in 1991, where he presented a series of legendary works. The billboard “Untitled” (1991) was first presented in Turin in 2000 during a group exhibition at Castello di Rivoli.

Bringing “Untitled” (1991) back to Turin more than twenty years later prompts reflection on how our perception of the city has changed and how its spaces can open up to the sharing of multiple perspectives and experiences. The work raises still-relevant questions about the collective processing of loss, and regulations of private space that constrain individual autonomy, in a historical moment that has disrupted our habits regarding mourning and absence.