The Officine Grandi Riparazioni in Turin are back to life: in the majestic industrial cathedral where trains were once repaired, new ideas for contemporary arts, innovation and creativity will be born from 30 September. The transformation of the new OGRs, led and implemented by the CRT Foundation, accompanies the metamorphosis of Turin from a city of industry to a center of soft power and culture, with a vision that has the ambition to strengthen the vocation of an entire territory in a international.
The OGRs inaugurate with the Big Bang fireworks, a party long until 14 October and completely free, with projects specially created by some important protagonists of the visual arts and music: a great gift to the city and to all the heterogeneous audiences who will enter the completely redeveloped space. Giorgio Moroder, Ghali, Elisa, Omar Souleyman, Danny L Harle, The Chemical Brothers and the super group Atomic Bomb! – for the occasion with the participation of Samuel – are the artists who will take turns on the stage of the new “Sala Fucine”, a space of over 3.000 square meters which, on the three consecutive Saturdays of 30 September, 7 and 14 October, will officially the start of the performing arts programming of the new OGRs.
On 30 September, the first day of the inauguration, the OGRs will immediately be live in 150 countries around the world thanks to Boiler Room, the most followed live music streaming channel on the planet which, for the first time from Turin, will broadcast the Alva Noto show in the Duomo of the North Workshops.
In addition to music, Contemporary Art is also the protagonist, with three site-specific projects signed by as many great interpreters of the international Visual Arts: starting from 30 September, in fact, the East Court, in front of the entrance to the OGR, will frame for the installation "Procession of Reparationists", created by the South African artist William Kentridge, who returns to confront the public space in Italy, after the monumental procession recreated on the banks of the Tiber in Rome in 2016. Two installations designed to dialogue with the architecture and offer an unprecedented and immersive experience of the spaces: "Track", a work commissioned from the Venezuelan artist Arturo Herrera and designed to welcome visitors to the OGR by suggesting in an abstract way some of the key values of the new space , such as interconnection, fluidity and dynamism; “Tutto Infinito”, a futuristic landscape covered in red earth and animated by totemic sculptures designed and created in collaboration with the young guests of CasaOz by Patrick Tuttofuoco, one of the most esteemed Italian artists of his generation, together with the ZonArte network, which on the occasion of the opening will propose an intense program of activities for the public.
“This 30 September will be a historic day for Turin and beyond – says the President of the CRT Foundation and the OGR Giovanni Quaglia -. With the great free OGR party, the lights of a new, extraordinary Italian pole of culture, art, creativity and innovation will be turned on, in the heart of the city but open to the world. A place capable of attracting different audiences, of being truly inclusive, of acting as a meeting and discussion point for Italian and foreign visitors of all ages, starting with young people, with the aim of creating a true community".
“After a thousand days of construction we are happy to light the first spark of the 'Big Bang' OGR – declares the Secretary General of the CRT Foundation and General Director of the OGR Massimo Lapucci-. We have decided to preserve the original spirit of the Workshops, a symbol of technological progress: a century ago they repaired trains; today we generate and regenerate ideas. Growth, acceleration and evolution are the cornerstones of this pole of contemporary culture, where nothing is static, but travels fast towards the future on the tracks of ingenuity and innovation”.
“For us, the Big Bang is the origin of a path and a trajectory that aims at the great international artistic and musical institutions – finally adds the Artistic Director of OGR Nicola Ricciardi -. But it is also the model on which we are building our programming, a model based on the balance of different styles and orientations that coexist and reconcile. Just as in the theory of the Big Bang, following the primordial expansion, the universe enters a condition of equilibrium, in the same way we, after the opening of the gates on September 30, and until October 14, will try to balance particles at first heterogeneous views – from Italian pop to sub-Saharan funk, from the dawn of disco-music to the contemporary electronic scene, from sculptural practice to the wall-painting technique – harmonizing them to create unique contents for OGR and its different audiences”.
