Accademia al museo - Database Carrara

The living skull
Currently, “Multimedia Installations” often take on the identity
of audiovisual instruments, of interactive spaces, of “living”
sculptures brought to life by the interaction with the public. Works
of art and operations which – by use of available electrical and
electronic technologies, open source or private-license software
and hardware, by manipulating and producing objects, sounds
and images, of specific shape and function – are able to create
meaning and convey messages which can be interpreted on many
levels: as play, as interaction, as a narrative, as an expression of
art, as an icon, as a literary work, as a symbol, on a psychological,
educational, social level, etc.
Throughout the “Multimedia installations” course, I required that
participating students create a final installation which may be
showcased in an open display available to the art world and world
at large. Specifically, the twofold artistic and non-artistic merit refers
to the broad meaning assigned to the expression “Multimedia
Installation” itself.
Pivotal elements of research in this direction are the recognition
of the modern medley of Low Tech and High Tech, the need
for a critical awareness targeted at the reduction of waste and
environmental damage, the invention and meta-recycling of
technological production, the use of renewable energy, of selfmade
sensory equipment, up to the actual reinvention of the
instruments and material goods of commercial mass production.
Each of these themes is tackled in the projects submitted for the
“Multimedia Installation” to be displayed at the Museum of Marble,
and every unique project has had to take into account the implied
physical, spatial, technical and logistic requirements determined by
the specific location, as well as the initial pre-requirements for the
project: an engaging reflection upon the art of sculpture, of which
marble is the quintessential material of choice, to be produced in
an interactive installation.
The project which was finally selected and realized is a large skull,
which follows the public entering the museum with its gaze.
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The pirate skull, Damien Hirst’s diamond skull, the skull as a symbol
of death, the skull of Venetian masks, the Mexican and Tibetan
dancing skulls, the skull of fear and horror, the skull on teenager’s
t-shirts, the skull in tattoos, the skull as a memento, Hamlet’s skull
and the interactive skull… The mind is filled with the imagery of the
skull (like that of love, or of zombies, or robots), which becomes
“likeable”; it deconstructs it, it analyses it, it shares it like an amulet,
as a signal, as a symbol of superiority against the injustices and
smallness of earthly life, against the pain and folly of life itself, as the
mirror-image of modern living.
The living skull refers to all these tropes, and stares at us without
pity, icily, yet simultaneously playing with us, acting as a miniature
“big brother”, which can no longer scare us, and rather coaxes us
into seeing its point of view.
Massimo Cittadini
Artist and professor