A Raceway on the Roof of a Former Fiat Factory in Turin Is Now Home to a Lush Open-Air Art Space with works by Sylvie Fleury and VALIE EXPORT on view
By Ana Vukadin
The Pinacoteca Agnelli has opened La Pista 500, a new exhibition venue located on a historic track used to test drive cars.
The former Fiat car factory, which shuttered in 1982, was once hailed by Le Corbusier as one of the most impressive sights in history. Indeed, it has a particular winning feature: a rooftop pista where new cars were once tested at high speeds along a pair of parabolic bends.
Four decades later, that test track has now been given a purpose once again. To marks its 20th anniversary, the arts institution has launched La Pista 500, a new public art space that takes over more than a kilometer of the old highway on its roof alongside a revamped program that seeks to redress some of the omissions of its in-house collection.
Some 40,000 verdant plants share space with the open-air exhibition space, which is now accessible to the public. Works by Shilpa Gupta, Louise Lawler, VALIE EXPORT, and Cally Spooner are on view as part of a relaunched program that seeks to highlight female practices. Resting on top of the new entrance to the museum to greet visitors is a work by feminist artist Sylvie Fleury, a large-scale installation exclaiming “yes to all” in red neon letters.
