One person alone is not enough. To operate the two mechanical sculptures designed by Matteo Vettorello, the coordinated breathing of at least two visitors is required, who together activate lights, sounds, movements and soap bubbles. It is from this simple, collective gesture that “Gigia il fiore per gli amici. Respiro Prog.” is born, the exhibition hosted by Spazio Neue in Milan, where participation becomes the very engine of the work and a way to rethink the relationship between body, technology and urban space.

Right from the windows of the space, characterized by a shiny electric blue curtain, one catches a glimpse of shapes halfway between the playful and the sinister, made of cables and Arduino, oscillating motors, sirens, lights and power supplies. These are mechanical sculptures that, stimulated by human beings, generate movement, colors and sounds, even going so far as to shoot soap bubbles.

Matteo Vettorello 

Vettorello’s two works are both sculptures and ritual spaces, and they share an essential characteristic: they can live in the space, move and produce sounds only through the audience’s interaction.

From this perspective, they become an investigation into the relationship between the body and urban space. Indeed, the artist shifts the focus from the city understood as an infrastructural system to its organic and sensitive dimension. As Vettorello himself says, the exhibition is “an attempt to measure something that cannot be measured.” It all stems from a question: “If the city is restless, how do people breathe?”

It is precisely the shared breath that sets these machine-sculptures in motion. The movement of the structures can only happen through the collaboration of two or more people. In a city like Milan, characterized by accelerated rhythms and a constant intensification of urban space, the project invites people to slow down, synchronize their bodies and experience temporary forms of proximity. “With a conceptual short-circuit, the work proposes to replace the idea of the city as an infrastructure with that of the city as an organism,” the artist summarizes.

Participation is therefore not an accessory element, but the very principle of operation of the installation. Through coordinated breathing exercises and mutual listening, visitors contribute to the manifestation of the works, transforming breath into a collective gesture and the sculptures into interactive mechanical-digital organisms.

Matteo Vettorello 

The connection that Vettorello’s artistic practice builds in the Milanese context also finds continuity in the words of Massimo Giorgetti, who writes: “In a moment so deeply digital where the screen is alienating us and where a by-now dystopian world reaches us every day through social media, Matteo, together with Domenico and Pasquale from Spazio Neue, have achieved yet another small miracle. Making us have fun and making us enjoy a moment of lightness.”

Born in 1986, Vettorello is a Venetian artist currently active between Milan and the international scene, as evidenced by his recent participation in the Malta Biennale and exhibitions in Madrid and Bilbao.

The identity of Spazio Neue, born to promote experimentation between art, design and image, also finds a natural continuity in the artist’s works. “It is not simply an exhibition venue, but a space built through relationships, dialogue and participation. Matteo’s works find their natural context here: they are works that do not just ask to be observed, but to be lived,” explain Domenico Costantin and Pasquale D’Ambrosio, founders of the space.

Giorgetti himself emphasizes how Neue’s identity is that of “a space for people,” a place where art, design and fashion truly meet. With Vettorello’s works, he adds, “something more happened: a true community that had fun singing, blowing, solfaing, talking and conversing.”

All that is left to do is breathe, vocalize and participate when encountering one of these mechanical beings with an aesthetic that is simultaneously brutalist, punk, childlike and alien. Stop for a few minutes. Slow down. And feel.