Energybox

Urban cabinets transformed — a public art project for A2A across the streets of Milan.

Energybox is a public art project created by artist Neve in 2015 in Milan, transforming street electrical cabinets for A2A, curated by Atomo Tinelli and published in the Skira catalogue.

"Energybox" is a public art project commissioned by A2A, the Milanese multiservice utility company, in 2015 — curated by Atomo Tinelli. The project invited artists to paint the electrical distribution cabinets that A2A owns across the city, transforming the anonymous grey boxes of urban infrastructure into works of art at street level. Neve painted several cabinets across Milan, each a self-contained work. A hyperrealistic man's face — warm, ochre-toned, intense — fills one cabinet entirely, the seam between its two doors running through the bridge of his nose. A crow in deep black and white occupies another, shot from below against a pale background, a tag or band visible around its neck. A third shows a woman's face: blonde hair, green eyes, red lips, rendered in Neve's characteristic high-contrast style. Each cabinet is approximately the size of a human torso. At that scale, the faces are not decorative — they are confrontational. The man's eyes follow you past the intersection. The crow watches from the tram corridor. The woman stands at eye level on a pedestrian street. The electrical boxes that no one sees become the faces you cannot avoid. The project was published in a Skira catalogue.