In the early 1930s, in Milan, Giovanni Muzio, one of the most important names in the group of rationalist architects, built the Palazzo della Triennale. He was simultaneously working on a project for a parish church in the Navigli area, the basilica of Santa Maria Annunciata in Chiesa Rossa. Both of these buildings are distinguished by exposed brick and a severe geometric formal language.

In 1996, the Reverend Giulio Greco invited the American artist Dan Flavin, one of Minimalism’s leading protagonists, to create a site–specific work for his church’s interior. After exchanging letters, the artist accepted the invitation and conceived what was to be his last work. In Untitled, the green, blue, pink, golden and ultraviolet light reverberates in the monumental austerity of the space designed by Muzio. The succession of colors that permeate the nave, transept and apse, evokes the natural progression of light at night, dawn and daytime.

A year after Flavin’s death in November 1997, the Prada Foundation completed the posthumous project for Santa Maria Annunciata in Chiesa Rossa, with the support of the Dia Center for the Arts in New York and the Dan Flavin Estate.

Santa Maria Annunciata in Chiesa Rossa is located on Via Neera 24 in Milan and is open every day from 4 to 7 pm.