LED 2010 - Restituiamo la piazza alla città

In April 1999, following up on a decision made by the Municipal Executive Committee in 1996, all the luminous signage was taken down from the façade of Palazzo Carminati, opposite the Cathedral. The Piazza thus lost its communication space - the tireless work of the “Kores lady” - and the city lost a sign of great symbolic, historic and environmental importance. The neon light tube had been created by George Claude in 1910 and just five years later Milan was sporting its first illuminated signs in the Piazza, even before Times Square and Piccadilly Circus. Photographic documentation shows the progressive intensification of images and text, free from any size or color constraints, offering messages relating to the desires of the time. The 2010 installation proposed a soundtrack and a scenographic projection of findings from the archives of former images. It used new technologies such as LEDs, graphic lasers and computerized management of the dynamics of the messages. All of this for one evening only while we wait for new lights, colors and impressions to return and give life to the Piazza.