09 Nov 2017

Thinking the unthinkable, the new visionary project by Donato Piccolo at the Youth Center of State Hermitage Museum

THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE

project by Donato Piccolo
curated by Isabella Indolfi

North-Western Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts - ROSIZO
opening 7th November 2017

Youth Education Center of The State Hermitage Museum

The new visionary project of Donato Piccolo is premiering in two venues in Russia, at NCCA Art Residence in Kronstadt and the Student Educational Center of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.

Donato Piccolo recently started a residency in the North-Western Branch of the National Center for Contemporary Arts - ROSIZO - a museum and production center for contemporary art supported by the Russian Federation's Ministry of Culture. For this prestigious residency program, which aims to strengthen international relations in the field of culture and art between St. Petersburg and the rest of the world, the NCCA Art Residence in Kronstadt will provide space and technical support for the new project by Donato Piccolo, 'Thinking the unthinkable,' curated by Isabella Indolfi.

On November 7th, the project will be presented to the public with an exhibition and a conference in the avant-garde spaces of the Student Educational Center of The State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, a department focused on the interaction between art and science, new forms of art and museums. As a space of dialogue with the academic world, the Student Educational Center opens the State Hermitage Museum to contemporary experiments through the creation of educational and cultural programs for students in diverse fields.

'Thinking the unthinkable' was born and developed in Russia. Though still a work in progress, it is already part of a large international promotion program in concert with important digital art festivals such as Cyfest in St. Petersburg (RU) and New York (USA), Media Art Festival in Rome (IT) and NEON Festival in Dundee (UK).

Donato Piccolo, working between contemporary art, science and new technologies, uses writing, painting and sculpture in order to investigate the relationship between artifice and nature, between mechanics and representation of reality. Natural, biological, cognitive and physical phenomena are turned into kinetic installations, emotional states, forms and processes.
The artist plays on technology with a keen sense of humour. Irony becomes a safe method to question the evidence, to demystify the myth of technology, to test the borders of the 'thinkable' and to produce those uncertainties useful for revealing contradictions and paradoxes.

'Thinking the unthinkable' is a metaphor, an experiment on human limits and possibilities; it is a study on the cognitive aspects impacting our reality which make it difficult to distinguish what we see from what really is.
'Thinking the unthinkable' is a motion installation that plays on dynamics, physics, and electronic and electromagnetic principles by implementing them on a system of thought that considers the machine only as a pure abstraction of the human spirit, and that brings the human being back to the center of reflection on artificial intelligence. Prostheses, bachelor objects and various shapes will be part of a single dynamic 'corpus', split and wandering on the edge of art and science, modifying our idea of the relationship between subject and object.
This artwork will observe and talk to us, telling the story of a world upside-down: 'All we cannot understand is inside our brain / All we cannot see is inside our eyes / All we cannot imagine is our future'

A catalogue will be published by Maretti Editore.


Supported by:
North-Western Branch of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts - ROSIZO (NCCA)
Youth Education Center of The State Hermitage Museum
Cyland Media Art Lab
Galleria Mario Mazzoli (Modena / Berlino - Italia)

Credits:
Marcello Mangione | Elmann
Alexey Grachev | Cyland Media Art Lab
Amedeo Lepore | Prodron s.r.l.
Andrea Sartori | MakeinBox
Aldo Filippi, Alessandro Colacino, Curti Giulio | Fablab Lazio
Edoardo Ciniglia | sound engineer
Celia Noemi Rucci | designer

Media partner:
Emanuele Marziani | Dogma01.it
Marco Gradari | MGVision