Laura Cherubini Remembers Nanda Vigo: A Life of Light and Space

Laura Cherubini pays tribute to Nanda Vigo (Milan, 1936–2020), a pioneering Italian artist, architect, and designer. Vigo's work consistently explored the interplay of light and space, a theme inspired by her childhood encounter with Terragni's Casa del Fascio in Como. She was closely associated with the Azimut group (Enrico Castellani, Vincenzo Agnetti, Piero Manzoni) and later the Gruppo Zero, curating a review in Lucio Fontana's studio. In 1973, she transformed the atrium of the Triennale di Milano into an open space with white ceramic tiles and a Greek theater-like staircase, hosting performances including a now-famous Franco Battiato concert interrupted by police. In 1976, she won the Premio Termoli with her work 'Sintagma' (glass, mirror, neon). This piece became the centerpiece of her final Light Project at MACTE Termoli, a museum born from the Premio Termoli collection, which opened in late February 2020. The exhibition, directed remotely via phone with Allegra Ravizza, includes two groups: 'Trigger of the space' and 'Light Progressions, Trilogy' (homages to Gio Ponti, Lucio Fontana, and Piero Manzoni). Vigo also had a major retrospective at Palazzo Reale in Milan curated by Marco Meneguzzo in summer 2019. Hans Ulrich Obrist called her studio a Gesamtkunstwerk, and Lea Vergine described her as 'the most international of all' and 'polemical but intimately kind.'