If, in Trento, instead of a work by artist Esther Stocker, hyper-realistic faces or the most banal slogans had appeared, nobody would be talking about this underpass. Instead, the city’s municipality chose a less accommodating route for the Via Canestrini underpass, entrusting the intervention to Stocker. Black and white, irregular lines, and an unstable—almost hypnotic—perception replace the easy-to-digest idea of public art, turning a place of transit into an experience. Not everyone is happy about this operation, and we want to take a closer look at the issue.
In this case, what matters isn’t so much what you look at, but how you move through it. The underpass, which connects the city center with the former SIT area, becomes a visual device that demands attention. The intervention was developed in dialogue with Mart and the Galleria Civica di Trento and is part of the exhibition Calm Chaos, Stocker’s show that has just ended, extending its curatorial discourse beyond the exhibition space.
Stocker’s work follows an unmistakable logic: geometric systems that seem ordered but start to fracture, and grids that disorient. Placed within a functional space, this language destabilizes the urban environment—and it’s no surprise the public response hasn’t been unanimous. The debate has focused on costs, legitimacy, and the choice to cover previous interventions, marking a clear shift away from a more illustrative, narrative tradition of urban art.
What makes it even more significant is that the underpass hasn’t been “museum-ified,” but remains exposed to everyday use, to traces, to interference. The writing that appeared immediately after the reopening (later removed) shows how public space remains a field of constant negotiation—where the work is never definitive, but continually tested by passage, gesture, and the urge to intervene.
But a more interesting question remains: what do we ask of public space today? Strong visual entertainment shaped by a taste that can please everyone, or an intervention capable of making us pause and reflect on the space we’re moving through? The Municipality of Trento has taken the second route, steering citizens toward a very specific kind of reflection. And we can’t wait to see more interventions like this.
