Crepuscular Green

Often, we contemporaryists have a too rigid and ideological view of the subject, forgetting that contemporary is, first of all, what happens now and not necessarily what happens ‘as aesthetically’. In this sense, the architect Cardillo’s proposal is akin to an artistic installation, an out-of-context piece: precisely in its contrast with the total white of the rest of the exhibition space, it emphasises the possibility and hope that non-homogeneous languages, though sometimes with similar roots, might return to converse in an intellectual dialogue that can enrich contemporaneity with ferments and new ideas.

Now, the two rooms coexist in a philosophical dialogue. The new entrance hall spiritually welcomes the audience, prepares them, and arranges them towards the exhibition environment, which has deliberately remained white, as before. And it is precisely this difference, measured by a corridor with a skylight, that creates surprise and amazement. It invites the possibility, any possibility, of encounters between not just ‘the’ contemporary but rather ‘the’ many contemporaries, whom we could and should embrace.

His understanding of space and balance has resulted in some of the most influential interiors of recent times.

The colors and textures in this Roman art gallery interior by Antonino Cardillo make us feel deeply weird. But we also love it.

Antonino Cardillo looked to the colours and textures used in the opening scene of Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold opera.

He is the most radical architect in my selection. It creates tension and a strong atmosphere. He has a sharp notion of interior design.

Egyptian? Greek? Roman? It doesn’t really matter, because once these ancestral images are deposited in our unconscious they are emptied of their historical specificity.

With its rather modest 40 square metres, Cardillo has transformed the gallery into a sacred space, providing a bold contrast to the eternal White Cube.