Scala Reale al Grato Soglio

Scala Reale is a permanent installation on a commercial apartment building in the Gratosoglio neighborhood of Milan, Italy. Wolf responded to a call for proposals from the architect/art collector that designed the building. Using his repeated artistic tropes of working with light and perspective, Wolf symbolically marked the time-space threshold of the building by transforming the façade, porch, and entrance through a series of black and white graphic gestures in both marble and glass. His treatment of the façade with repeating geometric shapes seems to vibrate in a step pattern and visually connects the foundations of the building to its roofline. The porch is activated by a set of symmetrical stained-glass windows of the same step-like pattern and is lit by natural light during the day and artificial light at night. Finally, the entrance is folded into the overall visual environment with applied black and white parallelograms effectively creating a complete transformation of the building into an experiential artwork. Anyone that enters the building’s threshold enters the work.

Rebecca Pristoop