Milan Open Air Art

Milan Open Air Art encourages visitors to discover Milan through the Modern and Contemporary art around the public spaces in the city installations. Oldenburg, Cattelan, Azuma and Pomodoro are just a few of the names that have contributed to make Milan an Open Air art museum.

In the beginning of 2000 the city of Milan installed a sculpture “Needle, Thread and Knot” at Piazzale Cadorna. The artists behind the Pop project, Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, used needle and thread in the monument as symbols of the fashion industry, whereas red, yellow and green colours reflect the lines of the metro system in Milan- being the sculpture outside of the bustling Cadorna station. Another stop during the tour is at a quiet Piazza d’Affari, in front of Milan Stock Exchange building. Designed by Italy’s most distinguished contemporary artist, Maurizio Cattelan, the controversial sculpture shows a middle finger, and has been a topic of discussions for many years. 11 metre high artwork is made out of high quality carrara marble, the same stone that was used to build iconic sights like Pantheon and Trajan’s Column in Rome, and Marble Arch in London. To give the tour a more ‘historical’ taste, we go back to the first decades of the XX century and discover the first doorbell of the city, an amazing and ironic sculpture by an Italian artist Adolfo Wildt, then move forward to the 70’s and free your imagination with metaphysical piece by De Chirico and other public installations in the Triennale Museum area.

For information, reservations or special requests on routes dedicated to the city of Milan by Viaggi di Architettura.