Here is an update of Fall 2016 art news in Italy, from North to South – the quirky grain Trump and visitor reactions to a show in Milan, a new way to see the Ara Pacis and funding found for Paestum.
Grain Trump
Grain Trump | Photo Dario Gambarin via AP
Land artist Dario Gambarin has plowed a portrait of Trump that says “Trump Ciao” into a field in Castognaro, outside Verona, citing the importance of art to “raise awareness” in this historic moment. Gambarin has previously used his tractor to write a get well message to Hillary Clinton (September 2016), and has drawn Mickey Mouse, Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Munch’s Scream and various symbols with grain.
Real Bodies
Exhibition “Real Bodies” | Photo http://realbodies.it
If you don’t know how you feel about grain-Trump, try this. Young men are feeling queasy at the exhibit “Real Bodies” at Milan Lambrate, where over 400 organs and whole bodies are reproduced in lifelike colour and displayed in dramatically lit rooms. In the month that the show has been on, some 20,000 people have been to see it, often standing in lines as long as 1km long; an average of three people per day have been reported fainting or feeling ill. Those most severely affected by these sensations? Men aged 20 to 35 years. Organizers of the traveling exhibition, which witnessed similar impressions in other locations, are considering creating an infirmary area and providing a defibrillator in the exhibit.
Ara Pacis VR
VR experience of Ara Pacis (Press Photo)
Speaking of close encounters with reality, the city museums of Rome have organized one of the country’s first augmented reality experiences at the Ara Pacis. Called “Ara ComEra”, and open on Friday and Saturday nights to limited numbers through timed entry, visitors are outfitted with Samsung VR headsets through which they view the Roman monument “augumented” by informative videos that colour and narrate the friezes. Although the story of animal sacrifices carried out at the altar may be an uncomfortable reminder for some, there is little likelihood of fainting due to the experience’s heightened reality here.
Pasta Paestum
Continuing in the archaeological vein, some good news from the food world. Salerno based pasta company Antonio Amato has signed a partnership to finance excavations at Paestum through two research grants. The 45 thousand euro donation has been made possible by recent government reforms rendering the site autonomous, combined with the ArtBonus law which assigns tax credit for donations. Paestum’s archaeological park became an UNESCO monument in 1998.
