In itinereArmin Linke, Miltos Manetas, MASBEDO, Claudia Pajewski
curated by Bartolomeo Pietromarchi and Fanny Borel
From the territory to the physical and virtual space of the Museum: the works on display are commissions created in collaboration with some institutions from L’Aquila: the Museo Nazionale d’Abruzzo MUNDA, the Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI) and the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso. Juxtaposed with: the metaverse project commissioned to Miltos Manetas and accesible on the metaverse art space platform ARIUM.xyz; besides the two works by Hidetoshi Nagasawa and Cao Fei displayed in the Museum’s court and project room.
Projects and art commissions by artists and photographers adress cosmic space and prehistoric time, nuclear physics and the virtual world, leading to a reflection on the speed of scientific progress and the effects of technological development.
Armin Linke, Miltos Manetas, MASBEDO, Claudia Pajewski
In collaboration with the Gran Sasso Science Institute (GSSI) and the Laboratori Nazionali del Gran Sasso (LNGS-INFN), the German-Italian artist Armin Linke develops themes related to photographic instruments, archive images and active experiments through his research into audio and video documentation inside the Laboratories and at the GSSI. Armin Linke’s research involves the public in debates ranging from topics such as the physics of neutrinos naturally produced in the Sun and in Supernova explosions, the search for dark matter particles and the study of nuclear reactions of astrophysical interest.
The Museum continues its research into new performance spaces, between physical and digital, with work commissioned from Miltos Manetas on Metaverso, curated by Chiara Bertini and Serena Tabacchi.
The Greek artist allows the public to navigate through his FLOATING STUDIO sulla metaverse art space platform di ARIUM.xyz, on the metaverse art space platform ARIUM.xyz which is accessed through impermanent “portals” made of pigments and soap, inside the Museum and elsewhere in the city and the world.
MASBEDO‘s installation builds on the discourse begun with the performance Gli occhi del topo presented for the PERFORMATIVE01 festival on the walls of the Spanish Fort.
The project, in collaboration with MUNDA, stems from the invitation to work on the city of L’Aquila with particular attention to the Fort, which was built in 1532 by the viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples, Pedro Álvarez de Toledo y Zúñiga and represents one of the most significant examples of ballistic engineering. Inside the Fort, the artists were inspired by the extraordinary acoustic connection system that allowed soldiers to communicate in the dungeons. Visitors are immersed in two video installations, set up in the Museum rooms, in an evocative environment that recalls the events that took place inside the Fort over the centuries until the present day through voices, sounds and images.
The second work commissioned in collaboration with MUNDA is linked to the Mammoth. It is a fossil, now a true symbol of the city, which was found in the 1950s in a clay quarry and exhibited following restoration in the Spanish Fort at the end of last October. Claudia Pajewski, uses photography to analyse both the scientific aspects and the symbolic value attributed to one of the world’s most important prehistoric finds.
The works by Armin Linke, MASBEDO and Claudia Pajewski were realised thanks to the scientific advice of the representatives of the three institutions (GSSI, LNGS-INFN and MUNDA), who accompanied the artists along a path of research and shared planning.
Hidetoshi Nagasawa, Cao Fei
In the Museum’s courtyard, Hidetoshi Nagasawa‘s sculptural composition – titled Compasso di Archimede – is in dialogue with the architecture of Palazzo Ardinghelli, in a play of forces and balance
Three intertwined iron rods occupy the semicircular courtyard, bending and supporting a cube, conveying both strength and lightness. The structure is determined by static force and gravity, paying tribute to the concept of leverage developed by Archimedes.
The video Asia One by Cao Fei , housed in the Museum’s project room, is a science fiction tale set in the large goods sorting centre in Jiangsu, China, the first in the world where work has been fully automated. Two warehouse workers, a man and a woman alienated by the routine of mechanical and repetitive work, become the protagonists of a romantic comedy that connects the past to the global future through a mixture of languages, ranging from science fiction to musical comedy.
