The ground floor entrance of an office building on High Holborn in London features a materic installation made by Marzorati Ronchetti, which transforms a blank, unremarkable wall into a magical reflecting presence that adds images and atmosphere to a place of reception and access to the various levels. Five large mirror-finish steel panels, hammered by hand, are juxtaposed continuously to create a large suspended work that reflects and distorts, almost as in a painting, the image of the space in front of it and the passage of visitors. The sheets, separated from the wall, are “framed” by a continuous band of light that spreads from behind them, creating a glowing halo that enhances and underscores the “architectural skin” of steel inserted in the space. This installation reinterprets the current of Minimal Art initiated in the 1960s by Donald Judd, in which basic geometric forms extending in real space pointed to an irreversible distancing from painting in favour of a threedimensional approach. Instead of suggesting an illusory space, Judd employed a truly abstract art to use and define real space. The steel panels placed in the New Penderel House in London obey this same principle, making optimal use of the chosen material.

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