"Those who enter Candiolo do not stop being a person in order to become a patient. Art in a place of care is not an ornament. It is a way of recognising that before us there is an entire life, not a disease." Allegra Agnelli presented the installation by Mario Merz in these terms. The work has been positioned in front of the entrance to the Candiolo National Oncological Institute, a project through which the Allegra Agnelli Foundation for Cancer Research, of which she is president, celebrates its first forty years.
"In forty years," she emphasises regarding the anniversary, "we have built an institute where research and care reach the highest possible level. But care is not only therapy: it is also what one sees upon leaving an appointment, it is the time spent waiting, it is the gaze of those who accompany you." And referring to the chosen work, she recalls that "Mario Merz is an artist recognised by the world: his numbers have travelled along the spiral of the Guggenheim in New York, his works are at Tate Modern and at the Centre Pompidou."
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