What inspires me? Light. Light is decisive for shapes, for objects, for a total environment. Light goes and has no dimension, and it can travel very far. (Nanda Vigo)
Nanda Vigo was born in Milan on 14 November 1936. After graduating from the Institut Polytechnique of Lausanne and an important experience in San Francisco, she moved to Milan where she founded her studio and took on a central role in the Italian avant-garde artistic movements and Europeans since the 1960s.
Since 1959 he frequented Lucio Fontana’s studio and shared his artistic adventure with personalities such as Piero Manzoni, his life partner, Enrico Castellani and Gio Ponti. In the same years he traveled a lot and exhibited in European galleries and museums together with the collective of artists Gruppo Zero who aspired to total experimentation, leaving behind the heavy artistic tradition of the past.
Emblematic are the 1965 Zero Avantgarde exhibition in Lucio Fontana’s studio in Milan and the Zero House project, a house with frosted glass walls inside which a system of neon lights of different colors alter the perception of space.
Nanda Vigo, Zero House, 1959, Milan
Engaged in multiple projects both as an architect, designer and artist, her work is an exploration of the arts that aims to research the conflict/harmony between light, space and time. Throughout her career her passion for light was overwhelming, so much so that she was considered “the lady of light”.
He investigates its relationship with space, the effects of reflection and estrangement that it unleashes and tries to “hold” it in extraordinary sculptures and installations to go beyond immateriality. Hence the choice to prefer industrial and semi-finished materials such as frosted and mirrored glass, steel and aluminium, capable of reflecting and dematerialising light rays.
Arch/arcology, Palazzo Reale Milan, 2019, ph. Marco Poma
Light Progression, Nanda Vigo Light Project, 2020 MACTE Termoli
In 1964 he developed the “Chronotopic Manifesto” in which he describes the modification of space through light and the sensorial involvement it entails in the eyes of the spectator. The concrete expression of the personal theory are the “Cronotopes”, immersive spaces with mirrors, neon and translucent materials where the visitor lives the all-round experience of light, which reflects and distorts, involving him emotionally.
A sinistra, Ambiente Cronotopico, Torino, 1968, ph.Ugo Mulas. On the right, Trigger of a space, 1974, ph.Aldo Ballo
“Sky tracks” exhibition, Trigger of the Space, installation view, Milan, 2018, ph. Marco Poma
Genesis, Palazzo Reale Milan, 2019, ph Marco Poma
Between 1965 and 1968 he collaborated with Gio Ponti and designed the scenographic interiors for the Casa sotto lafolia in Malo (Vi). Multi-awarded, both for her production in the industrial design sector and in the artistic field, in 1971 she received the New York Award for Industrial Design with the Golden Gate lamp and in the following years the first Saint Gobain Award for glass design.
House under the leaf with Gio Ponti, 1968, Malo (Vi)
Golden Gate lamp, Arredo Luce, 1968, first prototype of LED lamp, out of production
Cronotope Luminous Mobile, Driade, 1971 out of production
Her exhibition career is very intense, dotted with almost 400 personal and collective exhibitions in which he takes part almost continuously from the beginning of the 1960s until a few years ago. Among these we remember the Milan Triennale (1964 and 1973), the Venice Biennale of 1982 and the latest retrospective “Nanda Vigo.Light Project” of 2019 at Palazzo Reale in Milan.
Since 2006, Nanda Vigo’s works have also been present in the permanent collection of the Triennale Design Museum. Nanda Vigo passed away on May 17, 2020 at the age of 83.
Nanda Vigo, Exoteric Gate, University of Milan, 2016
In the cover image, portrait of Nanda Vigo, ph Ruve Afanador
