New Line Academy 2025: Yuri Catania "Redefines Urban Spaces" in an Immersive Dark Experience

For the second appointment of the Academy, Yuri Catania transformed the New Line warehouse in Lugano into a night gallery. Through UV torches, fluorescent art, and Augmented Reality, the artist demonstrated how street art turns functional places into poetic spaces.

• Event: New Line Academy 2025 (2nd Appointment).

• Artist's Action: Yuri Catania converted the warehouse into a "Dark Gallery".

• Location: New Line Headquarters, Lugano.

• Highlights: Fluorescent paste-up art visible with UV torches, Augmented Reality (AR), and a site-specific "Flower Constellation" on concrete.

  
  

A Warehouse, Darkness, and Wonder: The Event Concept

The second appointment with the New Line Academy for 2025 was an explosion of wonder. The goal was to surprise: the company warehouse, usually a place of logistics, became the ideal location for an "art in the dark" path for one night only.

Guests, equipped with torches, were invited to explore Yuri Catania’s creative universe in a completely new atmosphere. The artworks, created with fluorescent colors and UV-reactive materials, revealed hidden details and invisible content when hit by light, creating a total immersive experience that culminated in a special dinner surrounded by art.

Beyond Decoration: Street Art as an Act of Care

During his speech, Yuri Catania explained how his work aims to redefine the role of urban spaces: shifting them from places of transit ("non-places") to places of participation.

"You may have walked through Lugano and noticed giant colorful flowers or astronauts suspended between nature and concrete. You stop, smile, take a photo," the artist shares. In that moment, urban art becomes a gesture of rupture against the greyness of standardized cities.

Catania does not just decorate walls; he transforms entire neighborhoods.

• The Technique: He is unique in the region for working with paste-up (paper and glue), integrating photography and Artificial Intelligence.

• Iconic Works: From the famous Cats of Rovio in Val Mara to the Astronaut on the facade of the Palazzo dei Congressi in Lugano.

• The New Line Intervention: For this occasion, the artist created an ephemeral work on the company's concrete wall: a constellation of flowers engaging in dialogue with the industrial structure.

Technology and Nature: Augmented Reality and Ephemeral Art

A distinctive feature that emerged during the evening is the dialogue between biodegradability and technology. Yuri's works are made of paper and materials that time and rain will consume ("Ephemeral art that remains in the heart"), yet they are technologically evolved.

Through a QR code, the canvas and colors come to life in Augmented Reality. "Nowadays, an artwork is no longer static but lives in time," Yuri Catania explains. "This is the parallelism of our era: we are nature, but we are also the most technologically evolved animal."