Dan Flavin in the Chiesa Rossa, Milan
Milan is a strange city. It’s not like Rome, where beauty is blatant and majestic.
Milan is more discreet, its beauties are hidden and only locals and curious people living there for a long time are aware of them.
Sometimes it feels like falling down the rabbit hole. What I mean is that you wouldn’t expect to find conceptual art, Dan Flavin to be precise, in a quiet suburbia at the end of the green line, Abbiategrasso (which in an English translation sounds like “Be fat”). Even if you happen to go down there, nothing would compel you to walk inside this unobtrusive church. The Chiesa Rossa is actually a very plain looking building from the thirties on the outside, only when you come closer and you see the fluo light coming from the window, you have an hint of what’s going on inside. As soon as you walk you are mesmerized. The apse, the aisles, the columns, the ceiling, the bare walls of the church are illuminated by colourful neon light, striking you with surprise and wonder.
You might as well have Billy Idol there playing “White Wedding” for you, while your guests are sat in their Vivienne Westwood dresses. I don’t think I will have a more lysergic experience any time soon.
Here some pictures that i took during my visit.
A few more pictures that I’ve found on the internet
