maurizio nannucci
Maurizio Nannucci was born in 1993 in Florence, Italy. From the beginning of his career, his work has examined the relationships between language, writing and image, as well as colour. He interprets the perception of space on a physical, as well as mental level. Maurizio Nannucci claims no affiliation to any school yet his work could be compared to that of conceptual artists such as Bruce Nauman, Lawrence Weiner and the Fluxus movement.
The focus of the visual and verbal research in the 1960s was experimenting with concrete poetry and electronic music. His research then led him to explore various materials and production methods and to develop a certain poeticism regarding objects. He expresses himself though photography, video and sound installations as well as print editions. This multi-faceted artist and theorist creates a transdisciplinary dialogue between his work, architecture and the urban landscape.
Since 1967, Maurizio Nannucci has produced neon texts for internals as well as external spaces. The artist works with writing, colour and space. He also uses light that lends his pieces and intangible nature. His works are imbued with a relentless simplicity of form. Maurizio Nannucci's hallmark, economy in terms of aesthetics, brings to the fore the primary material of his art : language.
Listen to Your Eyes, crowning the façade of the CCC OD, is reminiscent of an advertising sign. This paradoxical instruction is unsettling and questions. The viewer/reader faces a word association that is seemingly impossible to resolve in the first instance. Through such linguistic feats, matching the scale of the architecture and the urban landscape, the artist Maurizio Nannucci succeeds in creating new mental spaces and a fresh perception of the surroundings of the spectators.
In Tours, the message acts as an invitation to passers-by to enter the Olivier Debré Contemporary Art Centre to stimulate the senses and remain sensitive to what there is to see or hear. In a broader sense, the Listen To Your Eyes message presides over Tours city centre art the bustling main road, Rue Nationale. Located at the entrance to the city, it encourages people walking about to keep a close watch on the surrounding world.
This work was completed in the scope of an exhibition at the Fonds Régional d’art contemporain (Frac) Lorraine in Metz in 2010. It went on to be exhibited between 2011 and 2014 on the façade of the LaM (Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art) in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, as well as at the Grand Palais during the exhibition Carambolages curated by Jean-Hubert Martin in 2016.
