Felice Varini's Architectural Installations Are All About Perspective

Varini's works span the entire terrace, with three, bright, graphic works in red and yellow applied directly to the famed structure. Commissions to the site in previous years include works by artists Xavier Veilhan, Daniel Buren and Dan Graham.

When viewed from a specific position, the seemingly disparate visual elements combine to form a unified image, as if overlaying spatial perspective with a two-dimensional image.

Playing with vantage points and parallax—the act of displacement that occurs when viewing an object from different perspectives—is central to Varini's work.

“[Varini is] able to use, underline and highlight a single architecture equally as well as a whole city," says Ora Ito. "The space is his natural medium, I am very proud to have introduced him to this roof terrace that he had only previously seen in a photo.”

“I generally scour the venue taking in its architecture, materials, history and function," says Varini, who carries a signature for site-specific works. "Based on its varying spatial data, I define a viewpoint around which my initiative takes shape. For me a viewpoint is a point in the space that I choose carefully: it is usually situated at my eye level and preferably located in a key passageway, for example where one room leads to another, a landing, etc. I don’t make a rule of it, as spaces don’t all systematically have an obvious path. The choice is often arbitrary."