Altre voci, altre stanze

With the solo show by Massimo Bartolini the Magazzino d’Arte Moderna begins a series of exhibitions entitled Altre voci, altre stanze/Other voices, other rooms, curated by Cloe Piccoli, to explore the research of contemporary artists in the field of environments. Abstract and physical spaces, true architectures or virtual simulations, projects in miniature or interventions in real buildings: in recent years many artists have chosen to work on spaces. They have built rooms, houses, ateliers, studies, boats, neighborhoods, entire cities with the humanistic aim of putting man back at the center of the universe, and with the idea of creating spaces as places of experience, whose precise, particular character can stimulate the mind and the senses, touching our deepest emotions.

In a period in which urban evolution is moving in the direction of the “Generic City”, as it has been defined by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas in his book S,M,L,XL, in sprawling urban aggregates without history or roots, characterized by variable identity in constant transformation, artists are inventing and constructing spaces in pursuit of a precise, definite, unmistakable identity.

While the Generic City, this complex, elusive contemporary phenomenon, is “a place freed from the confinement of the center and the tyranny of identity … a city without history … large enough for everyone … equally exciting and boring, without distinction, in every point … superficial as a Hollywood studio, which can produce a new identity every Monday morning”, on the other hand artists create personal, paradoxical environments where nothing is predictable or left to chance, but in which every element interacts with the visitor.

One of the most interesting artists who has worked on the theme of environments in recent years, Massimo Bartolini has created an important site-specific environmental installation for the spaces of the Magazzino d’Arte Moderna: Tamburo. This is a space visitors can enter. An isolated room, suspended, ethereal.

The visitors enter one at a time.

“Tamburo, the latest room constructed by Massimo Bartolini, is pause, suspended situation, enveloping space, experiential environment. Those who enter slide, along with the floor, to the level corresponding to their weight. There is nothing to look at. The experience is perception. The slope of the floor is minimal, yet this shift creates an instant of suspension, just enough to thrust the visitor into another dimension. Surprised, isolated from the rest of the world, in this space he perceives his own weight and physical nature, the body that reconnects with the mind. Each architectural element – doors, floor, walls, ceiling – becomes an inseparable part of the experience. Space is no longer an ‘external’ dimension…”

The exhibition takes the visitor on a physical and mental journey through minimal details and grand systems in pursuit of an ideal unity. Thus the video Dawn completely transforms one of the spaces of the gallery, introducing the viewer into another environment where the gaze follows a clear, precise trajectory from the sun’s zenith to the tip of the toes.

The voyage continues, passing through the ancient theme of the relationship between nature and architecture, in the large photographic image Cézanne’s leaves.