Marcello Maloberti's Neon Obelisk Skyward at Bangkok Art Biennale

At the Bangkok Art Biennale 2022, titled "CHAOS : CALM" and opened on October 22, Italian artist Marcello Maloberti (born 1966 in Codogno) presents "CIELO" (2022), a performative installation in front of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC). The work repurposes a fire truck's mechanical arm as an inverted plinth for a white neon sculpture spelling "CIELO" (sky) upside down. This industrial ready-made becomes a poetic-conceptual device, evoking a postmodern tower of Babel. Maloberti's handwriting style emphasizes the intimate, gestural nature of the luminous script. The piece references conceptual art pioneers Yves Klein and Piero Manzoni, particularly Manzoni's "Socle du Monde" (1961) at Herning, Denmark, where the reversed inscription made the pedestal a "base of the world." Maloberti calls it a "monument/anti-monument"—fragile yet powerful, temporary and evocative. The project was selected by Marco Scotini, member of the Biennale's International Advisory Committee. In spring 2022, Maloberti concluded a related research phase with the exhibition "Martellate" at Triennale Milano, featuring ironic aphorisms and slogans that explored the depth of writing in an image-saturated infosphere.