PHOTOSTRUCTURE (1968)

In the project drawings for the Fantastic City, created in the 1960s, one discovers Fogliati’s desire to construct a Temple of Light: a building conceived to capture sunlight and manipulate it, giving form to a three‑dimensional light sculpture. Fogliati realized this idea on an exhibition scale with Fotostruttura, an artwork consisting of a white aluminum disc positioned horizontally and connected to a mechanical device capable of setting it into rapid oscillation along its vertical axis. The high oscillation speed prevents the human eye from following its alternating motion, thus generating the perception of a transparent cylinder.

Onto this oscillating screen, a luminous image is projected from above. Reflected by the moving surface, the image spreads through every point of the space traversed by the vertical oscillation. It is precisely through this dynamic that the image takes shape within the transparent, immaterial cylinder, giving rise to a three‑dimensional light sculpture suspended in space: the Fotostruttura.

With this work, Fogliati redefines the use of luminous energy, no longer employed merely to illuminate an environment or an object, but transformed in its very essence and “consistency,” treated as a plastic material comparable to marble or wood, capable of generating true sculptures made of pure light.