David Tremlett

The city of Reggio Emilia continues to invest in contemporary art. David Tremlett was invited to undertake an imposing permanent intervention in the northern area of the city in a former feed factory and, simultaneously, to hold an exhibition in the ancient San Pietro Cloisters, in the very heart of the town.
The project is promoted by Fondazione Palazzo Magnani and Municipality of Reggio Emilia, with the participation of Galleria Studio G7.

This permanent artistic intervention involved thirteen silos and the façade of the adjacent building.
The organizations that will be housed in the building all deal with creative languages, be it through new forms of education, recycling of waste materials for artistic purposes, or theatrical activities.
The title —The Organ Pipes— equates the imposing silos to a pipe organ, and the interweaving of the structures above with the production of sound, in which the interweaving rhythms of color and form give rise to virtual sonorities. A functional yet abandoned architecture is thus transformed into an emblem of the neighborhood, offering “food for thought,” and confirming Tremlett’s artistic vocation: to work in space and architecture not by superimposing or erasing its memory, but by endowing it with new potential and a new lease of life. It is one of the largest permanent artistic interventions the artist has ever tackled: the silos occupy 750 square meters covering a total length of 75 meters, while each has a façade of 100 square meters, standing 11.3 meters in height. The palette of colors was selected by the artist on the basis of a specific study of the area where the work is set.