Grande Nero

Grande Nero was conceived by Alberto Burri in 1980 as part of the cycle of works Orti (which includes nine paintings), for the Fabbrica di Orsanmichele in Florence. Donated to the city of Perugia to replace Grande Nero R.P., previously withdrawn by the artist, it was placed in the basements of the Rocca Paolina, in the Salone delle Acque, a symbolic place of the city and a transit space open to the public. The sculpture consists of a minimalist and kinetic black parallelepiped whose top is formed by a semicircular element that rotates slowly on itself, thanks to an electric mechanism. The sixteenth-century vaults of the fortress prospectively frame the monumental work, restored in 2015, accentuating its upward projection.