Light in the city. The social and ethnic function of the nocturnal aesthetic light of Italian cities artistic luminous installations

Happens a few years in Turin, Naples, Salerno, and in Lecce, that lighting installations of a group of artists take possession of city centres public space during night hours. Through public art new roles invest urban places favouring the encounter and interaction among different components of the complex social context of contemporary cities, increasingly multi-ethnic places. Light, through its many contemporary and artistic styles, manages to be dynamic element shared with the audience, encouraging an ethnic and identitary strengthening at the same time. The experiential atmosphere of the artistic nocturnal artificial lights uniforms the migrant, the inhabitant, the tourist, the unexpected: all of them recognize the same universal value of beauty, leaving generational and cultural superstructure. The research presents the longstanding experience of Luci d’Artista in Turin, the projects Illuminando and Luminaria of Lecce and Naples, ending with the significant artistic experiment Re Place in the city of L'Aquila, where contemporary art has intervened insisting that the historical and cultural heritage of the city is a common good not to be forgotten.