paola pivi flips helicopter upside down inside 17th-century church in cremona, italy

paola pivi installs helicopter inside church of san carlo in italy

Paola Pivi returns with a large-scale intervention, turning an Agusta 109 helicopter upside down inside the deconsecrated Church of San Carlo in Cremona. The site-specific installation, titled A Helicopter Upside Down, transforms the 17th-century nave into an uncanny scene where motion meets stillness, and the familiar is rendered surreal. By inverting the aircraft—an object synonymous with flight and function—Pivi challenges the expectations of the viewers, creating visual tension between its imposing material presence and its newfound stillness. On view by appointment at San Carlo until June 2025, the installation continues Pivi’s exploration of the unexpected and the extraordinary in contemporary art.

all images by Attilio Maranzano

the setting highlights the disorienting effect of the intervention

The Italian artist has long experimented with subverting recognizable objects through inversion and displacement. A helicopter upside down follows in the lineage of Pivi’s previous works, including Camion (1997), a lorry flipped onto its side; Untitled (airplane) (1999), a fighter jet turned upside down for the Venice Biennale; and How I Roll (2012), a Piper Seneca rotating mid-air in a Public Art Fund installation in New York. Each piece plays with perception, humor, and scale, prompting a reconsideration of the ordinary.

In the case of A Helicopter Upside Down, the setting amplifies the disorienting effect. The baroque interiors of San Carlo—a space once imbued with ritual and transcendence—now house a machine suspended in an unfamiliar state of inertia. The dialogue between architecture and object fosters a paradox: a helicopter at rest, yet poised for movement, rendered at once tangible and surreal. Visitors navigate around the inverted aircraft, engaging with the piece in a way that shifts perspectives, inviting reflection on control, gravity, and expectation.

Paola Pivi returns with a new large-scale intervention

the artist turns an Agusta 109 helicopter upside down inside the deconsecrated Church of San Carlo in Cremona

the site-specific installation transforms the 17th century nave into an uncanny scene

by inverting the aircraft Pivi challenges the expectations of the viewers

creating visual tension between its imposing material presence and its newfound stillness

the baroque interiors of San Carlo house a machine suspended in an unfamiliar state of inertia

project info:

name: A helicopter upside down

artist: Paola Pivi | @paolapivi

location: Church of San Carlo in Cremona, Italy

dates: March 1st – June 2025

photographer: Attilio Maranzano