CANEMORTO in Ljubljana

. The Painting Race exhibition
the Match Gallery, Tuesday, March 31, 2026, at 7 p.m.

. The Radiant Van
Lighting Guerrilla festival, Trg francoske revolucije, 26. May 2026, at 9.30 p.m.

. presentation of CANEMORTO book
Trg francoske revolucije, 10. June 2026, at 9 p.m.

The anonymous Italian art trio CANEMORTO has arrived in Ljubljana and is currently busy setting up the exhibition The Painting Race, which we open at the Match Gallery, Ljubljana on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, at 7 p.m.

CANEMORTO, an anonymous Italian artist trio founded in 2007, has built over the years a language that blends conceptual art, underground subcultures, and Dadaist provocation within a surreal macro-narrative where reality and fiction overlap. Painting, sculpture, video, and performance coexist in an expressionist, ironic, and destabilizing imaginary that finds in The Radiant Van a new form of expansion into urban space.

The Radiant Van project is made possible thanks to the support of the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council program (14th edition, 2025), with the aim of promoting Italian contemporary art internationally, in collaboration with numerous co-producers and supporters.

ABOUT THE INTERNATIONAL PROJECT THE RADIANT VAN

On Tuesday, March 17, 2026, the anonymous Italian art trio CANEMORTO arrived in Ljubljana from Turin with their mobile light installation The Radiant Van. The artists used the van to deliver the paintings for The Painting Race exhibition, which we will open at the Match Gallery on Tuesday, March 31, 2026. The Radiant Van will be presented to the general public starting May 26, 2026, at the 20th Lighting Guerrilla festival.

The multi-phase project The Radiant Van is encompassing the production of the artwork (the van itself), the creation of a short film, the exhibition in Ljubljana, events in Venice during the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Biennale, participation in the Lighting Guerrilla festival in Ljubljana, and finally, the return home to Turin to find placement in the public space.

The project is the result of the curatorial vision of Antonio Grulli, director of the Turin-based art initiative Luci d’Artista, and is being realized thanks to the support of the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council program (14th edition, 2025), with the aim of promoting Italian contemporary art internationally in collaboration with numerous co-producers and supporters, including the Match Gallery and Strip Core / Forum Ljubljana (Lighting Guerrilla)

The Radiant Van develops from two archetypes connected to Turin: its automotive industrial vocation and its relationship with the magical and esoteric dimension. CANEMORTO transforms a classic work van into a “magic lantern in motion“: perforated panels, engravings, and an internal lighting system – also powered by solar energy – project a constellation of apotropaic signs into space.

The vehicle’s sides are engraved with 18 universal symbols inspired by white magic tradition and reinterpreted in the trio’s stylistic language. Light filters through the surfaces, transforming the vehicle into a mobile talisman capable of activating a different relationship each time with the places it crosses and temporarily inhabits.

The various phases of the project, from the artwork’s production to the journey’s stages and public presentations, will be documented through continuous updates on www.lucidartistatorino.org and on Luci d’Artista’s social media channels, allowing followers to track The Radiant Van’s evolution.

MILESTONES OF THE RADIANT VAN

In the project’s first stage, the Slovenian capital was the destination of the multi-day artistic journey-performance CANEMORTO with The Radiant Van, which began in Turin on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, and concluded on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, with the arrival in Ljubljana. The primary purpose of the delivery van/installation’s arrival was to deliver paintings for the CANEMORTO The Painting Race exhibition at the Match Gallery, through which the Slovenian public will be able to become acquainted with the trio’s work for the first time.

The second stage will be The Radiant Van’s journey to Venice for the opening week of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale, in collaboration with the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia (MUVE). From 6 to 10 May, concurrently with the exhibition Granda. Gli artisti degli Atelier 2024–2025, it will be displayed in front of the Casermetta Est at Forte Marghera.

During those days, the CANEMORTO triad will activate the Van through a performance taking place on Thursday the 7th in a selected location across the lagoon city.

From May 26 to June 22, The Radiant Van will be presented to the public as part of the 20th edition of the Lighting Guerrilla Festival, one of Europe’s leading events dedicated to light art, curated by Katerina Mirović and Nika Erjavec. The 2026 edition’s theme is Diversities, which invites exploration of how art, through the medium of light, makes visible presences and absences, what emerges and what remains on the margins. In this context, CANEMORTO’s work will be placed in Ljubljana’s urban space, in front of Match Gallery, temporarily transforming the location into a performative landscape and renewing its relationship with the city context.

On June 10, within the festival framework, the project catalogue will be presented, with contributions by Antonio Grulli (Luci d’Artista curator), Jani Pirnat (Match Gallery curator), Matjaž Brulc (Strip Core / Lighting Guerrilla Festival) and photos by Alessandro Trapezio. On this occasion, Marco Proserpio’s short film, made with sound designer Matteo Pansana, dedicated to The Radiant Van‘s journey-performance will also be screened.
After the Slovenian stage, the Van will return to Turin, where it will enter the permanent Luci d’Artista collection starting from the 29th edition (2026–2027), continuing to exist as a light artwork and as an active device in public space.

ABOUT THE CURATOR ANTONIO GRULLI
Antonio Grulli (La Spezia, 1979) has been curator of the Luci d’Artista project since its 26th edition (2023/2024). He regularly collaborates with the newspaper La Stampa, for which he writes the column “Lampi Critici.” He was curator of the Albanian Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale. Over the years he has handled the collection and contemporary art activities of Palazzo Bentivoglio (Bologna, palazzobentivoglio.org), was part of Viafarini’s board (Milan, viafarini.org), and has created a series of exhibition, project, and editorial initiatives in collaboration with fellow curators, artists, and collectors. For MAMbo Museum in Bologna, he conceived (with curator Davide Ferri) Sentimiento Nuevo, research on the state of art criticism consisting of meetings, conferences, lectures, and performances. He curates two non-profit exhibition spaces: Lucerna, in Milan, together with Federico Pepe, and the FBI space in artist Jacopo Benassi’s studio in La Spezia. Over the years he has curated exhibitions for public and institutional spaces including: Ala Scaligera at Rocca di Angera (Varese), Fondazione Carispezia (La Spezia), Fondazione del Monte (Bologna), Le Dictateur (Milan), Match Gallery (Ljubljana), MAMbo (Bologna), Museo di Castelvecchio (Verona); the non-profits C21 (Reggio Emilia), Codalunga (Vittorio Veneto), Hamlet (Zurich), Neon Campobase (Bologna), Viafarini (Milan). He has collaborated with publications including Arte e Critica, Arte Mondadori, Artnews Italia, Artribune, ATP Diary, Boite, Cura Magazine, Exibart, Flash Art, Le Dictateur, Mousse Magazine, and Studio Magazine.

SUPPORT AND PRODUCTION INFO
The Radiant Van project is made possible thanks to the support of the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture under the Italian Council program (14th edition, 2025), with the aim of promoting Italian contemporary art internationally. It’s  realized by Fondazione Torino Musei for Luci d’Artista in collaboration with Match Gallery / Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana (MGML), Forum Ljubljana – Lighting Guerrilla Festival, and Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia (MUVE). Luci d’Artista is a project and heritage of the City of Turin, realized by Fondazione Torino Musei with support from Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo and Fondazione CRT.