ArtLine

Atrio dello sguardo sul futuro is a hypogeal sculpture inspired by the so-called “Liver of Piacenza”—an Etruscan bronze model of a sheep’s liver dating back to the 2nd–1st century BCE.
The work consists of an underground room with an interior ceiling made of white resin, topped by an external bronze dome.
In Airò’s interpretation, the Etruscan liver subverts its traditional use as a divinatory object, presenting it instead as a ceiling that mirrors the celestial vault—inviting viewers to gaze upward toward the future.

Wilfredo Prieto, a Cuban artist, creates evocative metaphors using everyday objects. 
His piece for CityLife, “Beso” features two stones placed side by side, touching at a single point. 
This subtle interaction, symbolizing a kiss, invites viewers to reflect on the relationship between the natural world and urban life, connecting CityLife with more untouched, wild places.

Science, art, nature, and performance shape Matteo Rubbi’s creations. 
His work “Cieli di Belloveso” in Piazza Burri features over 100 stone stars, recreating the sky from 600 BC, the mythical founding moment of Milan. 
The installation reminds us of the environmental message CityLife promotes, encouraging us to reconnect with the stars amidst the challenges of light pollution.

A grouping of high metal poles; fifteen large multicolored neon signs coming on at night; a large and bright bouquet in the center of the new CityLife district placed where the entrance to the Fiera Campionaria, Milan’s trade fair, used to be. 
Each pole supports a set of three business signs, logos, or trademarks of no longer existing companies that made Milan’s economic, social, and cultural history. With their different styles, colors, and shapes testifying to the changes in taste and collectivesensibility, the neon signs trace the history of a city that, since the Unification of Italy, has always thought of itself as the epicenter of the entire country’s economy and renewal, united under the banner of a resolutely sought “progress".

Italian modernity thus reappears here in the form of a luminous and festive phantasmagoria, an urban “beacon” establishing a distant dialogue with the buildings of the new district, particularly with its three iconic towers, offering its presence to the passerby for a close-up view, a moment of pause, an unexpected reflection.

Coloris, by Cameroonian-born and Belgium-based artist Pascale Marthine Tayou, explores cultural identity through the universal language of color. Tayou uses various media to analyze the circulation of objects, ideas, and people globally. 
The installation in CityLife park features a concrete world map, dotted with colorful metal poles of varying heights, each topped with an egg. This joyful, global village symbolizes a delicate balance crucial to preserve.

Ornaghi & Prestinari, artists since 2009, bring poetry and delicacy to their works, often using everyday objects. 
Their sculpture, inspired by the Greek myth of Philemon and Baucis, represents the couple’s wish to grow old and die together. 
Two columns, standing side by side, seem to support each other, symbolizing the dialogue between past, present, and future.
 

Guards consists of two bronze sculptures depicting cats, placed a short distance from one another.
Their scale evokes sphinxes or large totemic animals, benevolent protectors of humankind.
With this work, the artist draws attention to how cats—among the most beloved animals by humans—embody, like many other living creatures, a discomfort in the modern city: their genetic diversity is at risk of extinction due to neglect, disease, and the destruction of their reproductive organs.

German artist Judith Hopf, born in 1969, blends various artistic languages such as sculpture, installation, and performance. 
For CityLife, she created “Hand and Foot,” featuring a foot anchored to the ground and an open hand mimicking a greeting. 
Made of bricks from the historic Riva Art Furnace, the work interacts with CityLife’s architecture, engaging the viewer in a dialogue between the artworks and the urban environment.

Maurizio Nannucci’s iconic neon signs have arrived in CityLife.
His phrase “New Times for Other Ideas – New Ideas for Other Times,” visible in blue or red neon depending on the pavilion, engages passersby.
Nannucci’s work, using large neon tubes since 1967, bridges the past and future, reflecting on how new ideas interact with history.

Octospider is an imaginary creature—part spider, part octopus—that rises up to eight meters above the ground.
The work also includes artist-designed pavement decorations and furnishings.
It can be experienced by children as a true playground, or simply admired as a sculptural device that fosters interaction among park visitors.

Padiglione Rosso is a cubic space measuring approximately six meters per side.
The artist created this space to welcome visitors and offer them an alternative perspective on the CityLife context.
Jaar’s viewpoint can also be interpreted as an evocation of the fading of the revolutionary utopias of the 19th and 20th centuries—ideals that played a crucial role in driving the democratic transformation of society.

Adrian Paci’s “Rudere” contrasts with the towering verticality of the CityLife skyscrapers. 
This cement house, missing a roof and wall, features mosaic-decorated facades, inspired by Gothic rose windows. The house is inhabited not by humans but by plants symbolizing eternity, virtue, mercy, and fertility, symbolizing the connection between humans and nature.

Sundown consists of 30 bronze chairs, a yellow metal sculptural element reminiscent of a tent, and an acoustic diffuser shaped like a horn, which broadcasts live programming from Rai Radio 3.
A distinct sound signal, layered over the radio and gradually lowering its volume, calls visitors to witness the daily natural event of the transition from day to night.
The moment of sunset thus becomes a shared ritual of transformation, and the installation itself becomes a meeting place to experience it together.

The Stage of Extinction is a structure designed as a two-level platform resembling a geological formation. 
Its surface is covered with drawings created by children during a workshop, serving as a testament—for future generations—of the extinction of the human race.
The stage can be used for small concerts, talks, seminars, and performances.

Untitled (Don’t See, Don’t Hear, Don’t Speak) is a series of works that reference the Japanese maxim of the Three Wise Monkeys, made popular in India by Mahatma Gandhi. Shilpa Gupta first saw the three-monkey sculpture gifted to Gandhi as a reproduction in a school textbook, and the image stayed with her for a long time. 
In this ongoing body of work, first shown in 2006, Gupta stages her protagonists, adults and children alike, as intertwining their limbs, each concealing or interrupting either their own or someone else’s ability to see, listen, or speak.
The proverbial principle of the Three Wise Monkeys—“see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil,” originally intended to teach people to be of good mind, words, and intent—is here turned on its head to describe a contemporary society that is willfully and conveniently ignorant of truth, violence, and injustice.

Serena Vestrucci gently intervenes in the real world, making subtle modifications that may go unnoticed at first glance. 
Her ArtLine Milano work focuses on the fountains known as “vedovelle” (widows), referring to the continuous flow of water resembling the inconsolable tears of a widow. Vestrucci’s unique ten new fountain spouts are tailored for CityLife park, each becoming a one-of-a-kind piece, rewarding those who pay attention to details.

Where Strata Gather consists of five sculptures made from natural materials such as stone, marble, and clay - sourced from norther Lombardy - and connected by steel tubes. 
How can the work reference the layers beneath our feet? By using materials that reflect the geological makeup of the region, the artist draws our attention to the hidden strata underground. 
The sculptures explore the relationship between raw matter and potential transformations it can undergo.