Mother by Robert Wilson – Photos ©Lucie Jansch and Salone del Mobile.

Design. Renowned American artist Robert Wilson presents Mother, a “total work” dedicated to Michelangelo’s Pietà Rondanini, in the eponymous museum at the Sforzesco medieval castle. Along with Leonardo’s Last Supper, the masterpiece is recognised as one of Milan’s most celebrated artworks. The installation highlights the power of the “unfinished,” embodying an energy suspended between matter and thought, the raw and the poetic. As light moves through the space, it defines and deconstructs the statue which captures the moment when Jesus, taken down from the cross, is given to his mother Mary.

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“Light is what gives shape to space. Without light, space does not exist. Albert Einstein said that light is the measure of all things. For me, it is always the starting point.” Robert Wilson explains. “If I have to set up an exhibition, I start with light. If I create a play or an opera, I start with light. Because light is not just a technical element, it is a living presence, an actual protagonist. Light is not a detail to be added later, it is the beginning of everything.”

“When I first saw Michelangelo’s Rondanini Pietà I sat there in front of it for more than an hour. I can’t say exactly how long it was, but it was as if the world had stopped. Then I got up and started walking around it. I felt a powerful energy, an almost mystical presence. Perhaps the very fact that it is unfinished is what makes it so extraordinary. It is like an open window, a space suspended between the visible and the invisible.

“But after all, the Pietà doesn’t really need a setting. It just needs a space, a breath, and silence so that those who observe her can lose themselves in their own thoughts and emotions.” Continues the artist.  Set in the Spanish Hospital of Castello Sforzesco, recently redesigned by Michele de Lucchi, the exhibition engages in a dramaturgical dialogue with the Stabat Mater, a medieval prayer in the vocal and instrumental version by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt.

“There is something in common between his music and this sculpture: a sense of time that expands, a space that opens out and welcomes. Together, art and music do not narrate, do not explain: they simply allow us to feel.” The Stabat Mater will be played live by the Vox Clamantis ensemble, conducted by Jaan-Eick Tulve, and by La Risonanza, conducted by Fabio Bonizzoni.

Salone del Mobile commissioned the installation on the occasion of Euroluce, the biennial exhibition dedicated to lighting design. It was developed in collaboration with the City of Milan and will be on display on April 8-13 – h.10.0017.30, last entry at 17.0o. Admittance by reservation only at scheduled time – Tickets and reservations: www.museicivicimilano.vivaticket.it.

All photos of Robert Wilson. Mother at Castello Sforzesco are by ©Lucie Janschare and Salone del Mobile.Milano 2025.

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