Palazzo Reale presents, within the Bookcity Milano 2023 programme, the multimedia sculpture work "The Light of the Mind - an urban sign" by the artist Federica Marangoni. The light installation, promoted by the Municipality of Milan - Culture and produced by Palazzo Reale, conceived as a site-specific work for the Courtyard of Honor of the Palace, will be visible from 15 November to 10 December 2023 .

Multimedia artist known for the innovative use of glass, light and video in her works and installations, Federica Marangoni (Venice, 1940) was a pioneer in research into new materials, through the innovative use of emerging technologies. Between the 70s and 80s he began working with performance, producing works that explore concepts such as light, artifice, ephemerality, transparency and virtual mobility of the image and breaking with the traditional concepts of sculpture. Glass represents a central element in her research, which leads her to work constantly with Murano companies.

The work La Luce della Mente – an urban sign , a large-scale evolution of Federica Marangoni's cycle of works on the theme of books, language and memory, was created in corten iron, cracked blue neon always in motion and scrap blue Murano glass. The fulcrum of the installation is the book sculpture Light, which is half-open and inserted in a cage from which neon words emerge, signs of a new vital energy that is released upwards. The large volume emerges from a luminous pile of blue glass scraps, which seems to bring the light of the words to life. The message of words linked to the drama of humanity, a recurring theme of Federica Marangoni's work, is expressed here almost like a pulsating urban advertisement , where the presence of the monumental book and its open pages reflects the soul of our existence. Memory and testimony of learning, the very symbol of human thought, this book rusted by time seems to let words emerge from its pages, which illuminate the mind and invite those who pass by and stop to grasp its meaning. A light installation that attracts passers-by with its familiar shape of an urban sign.