Commissioned and produced by Pinacoteca Agnelli, with the support of Carl Kostyál
LA PISTA 500
Exhibited Works
RONG BAO
CARNIVOROUS BLOOM , 2025
PU plastic, steel, foam and silicone, 118h × 94w × 113.7d in (300h × 37w × 289d cm)
Exhibition Text
An art project on the roof of Lingotto
Shirin Aliabadi, Allora&Calzadilla, Thomas Bayrle, Rong Bao, Nina Beier, Julius Von Bismarck, Monica Bonvicini, VALIE EXPORT, Sylvie Fleury, Francesco Gennari, Liam Gillick, Marco Giordano, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Shilpa Gupta, Alicja Kwade, Louise Lawler, Mark Leckey, Chalisée Naamani, Silvia Rosi, Finnegan Shannon, Cally Spooner, SUPERFLEX, Rirkrit Tiravanija.
The track historically used by the FIAT factory for testing cars on the roof of the Lingotto, now enhanced by a hanging garden, has become a spectacular panoramic walk through art.
The works on Pista 500 are created by international artists and include sculptures, light and sound works, and expanded cinema projects. The interventions engage with the architecture and industrial past of Lingotto, the urban context, and the surrounding landscape, transforming Pista 500 from a closed circuit to an open road, from a production site to a collective space for new stories and visions.
Rong Bao explores the relationship between attraction and estrangement through sculptures and installations that combine post-human imagery with a pop aesthetic. For Pista 500, the artist presents Carnivorous Bloom , an interactive sculpture animated by constantly shifting inflatable petals, vibrating and oscillating like a pulsating organism. The installation takes the form of a carnivorous plant, its bright pink hues amplifying its seductive nature, evoking mutant plant forms and alien creatures. A living cell with an undefined identity, its hypnotic breathing invites the public to relax and be transported by its vibrations in an enveloping physical and sensorial experience. With subtle irony, Carnivorous Bloom enters the dialogue between industrial architecture and the natural dimension of the suspended garden on the roof of the Lingotto. The installation appears as a fluid entity, halfway between creature and machine, between reality and science fiction. Bao challenges us to question the very meaning of interacting with the work, and how this experience can subvert our expectations.
The artist’s work is based on interaction with the public, inviting them to engage with ambiguous forms and translucent materials, evoking a world simultaneously artificial and organic. Playing with the perception of the body and space, Bao creates works that oscillate between the fascinating and the uncanny. Her installations transform into immersive environments that disorient while simultaneously allowing new possibilities for interpreting matter and identity to emerge. Visual design with the support of Yuechen Zhou. Sponsor in kind for the creation of the work is Sport Promotion.