Ferrara, artist Aqua Aura's solo exhibition at Palazzina Marfisa d'Este and the Great Synagogue

From March 16 to May 5, 2019, the exhibition Aqua Aura. Paesaggi Curvi is being staged in Ferrara at the Palazzina Marfisa d’Este and in parallel at the Sinagoga Grande della Scola Italiana (the latter opening its doors to contemporary art for the first time). The title of the solo exhibition (“Curved Landscapes”) by Aqua Aura (pseudonym of Raffaele Piseddu; Vimercate, 1969) originates at the phonetic assonance with the scientific term “Curved Passages,” recently coined in the field of Astronomical Physics and investigated in particular by Lisa Randall, author of one of the most accredited models of multidimensional universe.

Just as the scientist conceives of the universe as a membrane endowed with multiple space-time dimensions that can stretch and curve, thus crediting radically different physical laws than the dynamics we know, so Aqua Aura evokes, through her works, multidimensional places: Landscapes that stage the contradictions of human perception and the fear of what may lie beyond, in the elsewhere, and at the same time the desire to know, to reach out for what eludes the senses, to the point of mingling with arcane feelings of the “magical” and the “sublime.”

The exhibition stems from a desire to trace the contours, through the unfolding of its rooms, of an often forgotten theme, namely “Landscape,” which was cleared as a genre in its own right in the seventeenth century. The exhibition is thus an opportunity to focus on the artist’s research united by the common denominator of landscape as a generator of meaning, from the first studies of 2011 to the latest offshoots from the outcomes still in progress, which collect (and will collect) the production of 2018 and 2019.

The section of the exhibition hosted at the Palazzina Marfisa d’Este will develop, in the first rooms, in a linear and chronological sense, through the presentation of the load-bearing (and two-dimensional) series of Aqua Aura’s work, from Scintillation to Empty Spaces, up to Museum Highlights. This will be followed by rooms devoted to works in which the subject “Landscape” meets next-generation technological languages: environmental video projections, video sculptures, 3D animation, and computer prototyping. Alongside the historical works, several new works will be presented. This is the case with the video installation Where the Lost Things Are, which combines analog footage and 3D animation. Some outdoor shots anticipate a sequence plan set in an industrial warehouse, inside which one will witness an enigmatic event, triggered by a glacial landscape that generates the ancient feeling of wonder, of amazement, exploiting the vision of a reality plausible in nature, but placed in an improper place, with a surprise ending.

In the Great Synagogue of the Italian Scola, on the other hand, the video installation Millennial Tears will be presented, for the first time visible in Ferrara. In a place strongly connoted on a historical and cultural level, the artist proposes an immersive and emotional experience, triggered by a visit to the Yad Vashem Museum Shrine in Jerusalem and matured among the Icelandic ice, in dialogue with a very topical theme, namely the dramatic melting of the Arctic ice cap. From the slow crumbling of the ice sheets emerge memories and expectations, emotions imprisoned in the solidity of the ice and tears of birth to rebirth of millennial Jewish culture.

The exhibition, realized with the support of Co.O.Pe.Ra.Te. srl, will be open to the public at Palazzina Marfisa d’Este (Corso della Giovecca, 170) from Tuesday to Sunday with hours 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., closed Mondays; Easter closed, open Monday of the Angel, April 25, May 1. Full admission Euro 4.00, reduced Euro 2.00 (groups 15 people, over 65); free under 18. The section set up in the Scola Italiana Great Synagogue (Via Mazzini, 95) will be open by appointment until April 16, 2019. Free admission. Vanillaedizioni catalog with prefaces by Tiziano Tagliani (Mayor of the Municipality of Ferrara) and a representative of the Jewish Community of Ferrara and critical texts by Maria Letizia Paiato and Chiara Serri To learn more about Aqua Aura you can visit its official website which you will find at this link. For information about the exhibition you can call +39 0532 244949.

Pictured: Aqua Aura, Museum Highlights, Basement (2018-2019)

Ferrara, artist Aqua Aura's solo exhibition at Palazzina Marfisa d'Este and the Great Synagogue

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