VERONA.- Galerie Eva Presenhuber announced this year's red carpet project at ArtVerona 2024 by Ugo Rondinone, titled the rainbow brick road.

For the project I have imagined the carpet as a 'brick road' of many different colors, by merging two incompatible archetypes: the rainbow and the brick. Both archetypes appear as leitmotivs in my paintings, sculptures, videos, and installations since the early 90’s in form of openings and walls.

The archetype of the rainbow is as a symbol of peace, equality, and openness. The rainbow bridges everything and everyone.

The archetype of the brick is a symbol of closing someone or something in or out. The brick builds walls around yourself and the world.

In fusing the two contradictory forces together, a third force emerges: ‘the rainbow brick road”, a symbolic fundament for LGBTQIA+ rights in Italy, whose status is way below the standards of other Western European countries – such as still not recognizing same-sex marriage, lacking nationwide discrimination protection for goods and services, as well as not granting to same-sex couples parental rights, such as adoption and IVF.

– Ugo Rondinone

After the presentation, the work will be divided into smaller sections and sold in a fundraising event. The funds raised will be donated to two non-profit organisations: an association that works to secure LGBTQIA+ rights, and another association that works to combat violence against women. The choice of beneficiaries subtly reflects the conceptual framework of the project.

Rondinone is recognized as one of the major voices of his generation, an artist who composes searing meditations on nature and the human condition while establishing an organic formal vocabulary that fuses a variety of sculptural and painterly traditions.

ArtVerona continues to invite great artists to create ambitious exhibition projects, of which The Red Carpet is one. A unique feature of ArtVerona, it stands out as one of the most beloved and iconic formats of the art fair.