Maria Loboda inaugurates Hypermaremma 2025 with a sacred portal between art and archaeology in Ansedonia

On Saturday, April 19 at 11:30 a.m., the new season of Hypermaremma kicks off with the installation by German artist Maria Loboda (Krakow, 1979), To Separate the Sacred from the Profane, set up in the evocative setting of theArchaeological Area of the Ancient City of Cosa, in Ansedonia (Grosseto). The event, which for years has been bringing contemporary art to the heart of the Tuscan Maremma, thus inaugurates its new exhibition cycle. The site-specific intervention was realized in collaboration with Leonardo Bochicchio, director of the archaeological area, and the Maremma Archaeological Parks, consolidating a synergy between cultural institutions and contemporary art practices, which is now a distinctive feature of the Hypermaremma project.

Japanese inspiration in Etruscan land

More than four meters high, the imposing installation takes the form of a circular portal, an arch that traces the shape and meaning of the chinowa, an ancient ritual object in the Japanese Shinto tradition. In Eastern culture, the chinowa is crossed during purification ceremonies to ward off impurities and restore harmony with the divine. Loboda reworks this ritual archetype by casting it in the context of the Archaeological Park of Cosa, a site of extraordinary historical value founded by the Romans in 273 BC. After centuries of oblivion, the area still preserves remains of the ancient forum and the Capitolium, the temple dedicated to the Capitoline triad, Jupiter, Juno and Minerva, which dominates the promontory overlooking the sea. Just between the forum, the center of civil and political activities, and the Capitolium, the seat of religious power, Loboda’s portal fits, creating an imaginary gap between two symbolic spheres: that of the profane and that of the sacred.

With To Separate the Sacred from the Profane, Maria Loboda activates a dialogue that questions the very meaning of archaeology in the present. In a time when the distinction between spirituality and rationality seems increasingly blurred, the work calls for the need to rethink our relationship with the past, not only in aesthetic but also in ethical terms. Crossing the portal thus becomes a symbolic and personal act, a rite of passage that urges the viewer to question his or her own place in time, space and history.

Maria Loboda inaugurates Hypermaremma 2025 with a sacred portal between art and archaeology in Ansedonia

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