The year 2006 was another important year in Mustica’s evolution towards design and architecture, as it became increasingly necessary to include physical space in his research, which had always been concerned with mechanics, engineering and architecture. The inclusion of rotational and translational movements in his work led to the Mustica Tower.

During this period, on the occasion of an exhibition at the Bury Art Gallery & Museum, Manchester, the artist began to refer to his paintings as techno-paintings[i].

[i] Helmut Herbst, Simultaneità dinamiche del tempo in Richard Burns, Jacqueline Ceresoli, Helmut Herbst (a cura di), op. cit., p. 38

In 2006, in collaboration with MotorPower Company Infinite Painting, he designed and created a column approximately four metres high with a rectangular base. The column is divided into levels that rotate and move around the central core. According to Mustica, this constant movement of transformation is Infinite Painting. There are eight coloured block models, each with a painting by Mustica on its four sides, placed in a pool of water. The pool reflects and multiplies the painting.

This is where the irrationality of art and the logic of technology meet and evolve, consolidating the artist’s poetics.

This research is explored in depth in the Mustica Tower project, which consists of a complex translation and rotation mechanism generated by a genetic algorithm, the mechanism of which was designed and patented in an engineering study. Mustica Tower is a kind of test of the artist’s ability to master the rules of the morphogenetic field. The artist inserts a figurative element into a computerised representation of the urban context, which can be either a work of art or a hypothetical architectural design.

The study dates from 2006 and comprises a series of elements: the two videos Infinite Skylines (2006/2007) and Mechanics (2008), graphics and paintings based on the same skyscraper, and three-dimensional works.

[i] Elena Mor, op. cit., p. 167

In 2009, on the occasion of Start-T. L’arte sotto le stelle (Start-T. Art under the stars) at the Galleria Umberto I in Turin, Mustica exhibited a kind of model of the skyscraper, 6.5 metres high, composed of planes that can rotate on themselves and move in four directions, each independently of the others. For the first time, his three-dimensional pictorial forms become not only a constantly changing skyline, but also a plausible and usable environment. It is the maximum expression and deepening of the exploration of the third dimension.

It also includes a reflection on sustainability, since the rotation and translation of the building around its central axis allows for the production and accumulation of energy; the movement of the different floors, on the other hand, allows it to follow the sunlight according to the needs and times of day. The movement of each floor is designed to be energy self-sufficient, thanks to a wind turbine and photovoltaic cells.

The landing at Pictorial Evolutions and Mustica Tower, a project in which the artist conceives, translates and announces the rotation and transfer system of the tower, addresses the urgency of a further concretisation of art-related projects to build a real future. The Mustica Tower embodies this idea, understanding architecture as a symbol of humanity’s collection and ecologically sustainable technologies. It is designed according to the principles of solar orientation to create a vertical city that rises to the sky. The skyscraper manifests itself as a synthesis of organic and inorganic materials that can be perceived in a three-dimensional, pictorial form. [i]

[i] Fortunato D’Amico, op. cit., p. 119.

In 2007 he was invited to spend about three months in Bali, working on a project for the gardens of Gaya Art Space in Ubud. He chose to study the local history, context, lifestyle, spirituality and traditions, which he then incorporated into his work. 11 Totems is a monumental installation of 11 large totems closely related to numerology: 6 metres high for the 9 aspects of God, another 2 for the Earth and the Void, each composed of 33 levels for the 33 million deities present in the pantheon of the Hindu Vedas. The sculptures are made from recycled materials (for example, the sheet metal is taken from oil barrels), each chosen by the artist to have a specific meaning: glass evokes transparency, water life, bamboo flexibility, wood the earth, flowers perfume, fabrics colours, iron strength, white Raku ceramics completeness, coloured Raku ceramics diversity, coconut leaves nature, stone the memory of the earth.

Inside the exhibition space, however, Mustica has chosen to present a selection of paintings whose titles (Rejang Dance, 2007; Legong Dancer, 2007) give an indication of the context, paying homage to the movements of Balinese dancers. A series of digital graphics of various sizes, dated 2008, are also part of the installation.

The works presented in 2008 at the Novalis Fine Arts Gallery in Turin, in many cases linked to the Balinese experience (Tari Kecak, 2007; Leak, 2007; Putih, 2007), mark this moment of transition from Pictorial Evolutions (2000-2005) to rotating translations, in an attempt to construct a new architecture of space.

It is not just a search for new digital languages applied to painting and sculpture, nor a purely self-referential complacency, but a transversal contemporary investigation in which art, architecture, technology and electronics constantly contaminate each other in a rhizomatic dimension, interconnected with our computer culture[i].

[i] Jacqueline Ceresoli, La traslazione della pittura, in Fortunato D’Amico, Jacqueline Ceresoli (ed.), Nino Mustica, Novalis Fine Arts Gallery, Turin 2008, pp. 32-33.

In 2009 he created Pittura solida (Solid Painting): a digital animation with a similar content to Mustica Tower, but with formal and conceptual innovations. In terms of content, the video is structured as a narrative explaining the artist’s creative processes, with a higher level of quality in the animation and in the definition of the architectural object. Pittura solida is a building project based on the ideal transition from painting to sculpture and from sculpture to architecture, in which the organic, phytomorphic forms with rounded tops of the three-dimensional pictorial forms come to life on the surface and in the structure of the building. A series of digital graphics are also derived from the video.

In 2010, in Piazza del Duomo in Pietrasanta and in the Church of Sant’Agostino, he presented Steel, a series of seven steel sculptures scattered throughout the urban space, made up of thin triangular facets. Made by the Sassoli Group in Cavenago, the works vary in size and are over two metres high.

In the same year, in Venice, during the Architecture Biennale, in the framework of the Culture-Nature project, in the garden of Spazio Thetis, Nino Mustica presents Il fiore (The Flower), with the intention of reflecting on the concepts of landscape, agriculture, energy, design and eco-compatibility. The sculpture is a multi-expressive work in which shapes, materials, lines and signs complement and contrast: glass, wood and steel represent the planet built by man, in contrast or in harmony with the environment. A central vertical element rises from the floor and has a yellow ‘bud’ at the top, a symbol around which the petals take shape. Light reflections off the steel in the corners and on the surfaces create luminous facets that are diffused around the work, amplified by the LEDs that allow Il fiore to light up at night. The wood and glass that enclose the central core interpret the wave structure in fluid movements and, thanks to their transparency, allow small visual glimpses for the spectator immersed in the sculpture and the surrounding park.