In art, white is a colour. In western painting it is used for the natural portrayal of atmospheric conditions of snow, ice, fog, and the desert, where light plays a fundamental role. The four seasons have been imprisoned in contemporary art through the use of white, which fixes on the canvas the blinding state of light, always an indicator of the absolute, of the sublime and of silence." Thus, in this book acting as catalogue, Achille Bonito Oliva introduces the exhibition organised at Palazzo Cavour in Turin by the Piedmont Region, with the collaboration of the Velan Center for Contemporary Art of Turin, on the occasion of the Winter Olympic Games held in Turin in February 2006. Thematically linking up with the Games, white, a colour that totalises all the colours of the spectrum of light, thus stands to represent the lands of Piedmont, its mountains and snow-covered ranges. The exhibition is an important moment in art, showing leading artists of the contemporary art scene - Daniel Buren, Paolo Chiasera, Nicola De Maria, Lucio Fontana, Innocente, Anish Kapoor, Joseph Kosuth, Marisa Merz, Liliana Moro, Maurizio Nannucci, Mimmo Paladino, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Luisa Rabbia, Remo Salvadori, Ettore Spalletti, Nikola Uzunovski and Gilberto Zorio - who have all created white or monochrome works. Each of them has been assigned an individual room, thus creating an exhibition of many one-man shows.