“Pirelli HangarBicocca is pleased to present an exhibition of James Lee Byars, one of the most enigmatic and legendary figures in 20th-century art. The show, the first retrospective in Italy dedicated to the American artist since his death in 1997, journeys through his layered work, which developed as a continuous exploration of the deepest meanings of the existing world, poised between mysticism, spirituality, and corporality.

The retrospective of works by James Lee Byars (Detroit, Michigan, 1932 – Cairo, 1997), curated by Vicente Todolí and organized by Pirelli HangarBicocca and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid (where a version of the exhibition project will be presented from April 25 to September 1, 2024, at the Palacio de Velázquez), will be held in the Navate spaces at Pirelli HangarBicocca. Bringing together a vast selection of sculptural works and monumental installations created from 1974 to 1997, and coming from international museum collections, it features works that have rarely been exhibited, and that are presented in Italy for the first time.” — Pirelli HangarBicocca

Todolí states: “We usually conceive site-specific retrospectives that dialogue with the architecture of Pirelli HangarBicocca. In his practice James Lee Byars used to adapt his corpus of works to the space in which it was displayed, thus creating an exhibition that was an overall installation in itself. Therefore, our selection of artworks interacts with the former-industrial building of the Navate, challenging us to interpret the space according to the artist’s own conceptual approach.”