Spazio Chirale: great public success for RAW 2023

From 23 to 28 October the by-now familiar appointment with Rome Art Week returned — the great event dedicated to contemporary art that, in this 2023 edition, hosted 479 events across the Capital, with the participation of 211 galleries and 529 artists.

Our Spazio Chirale Process Gallery, as every year, could not be missing; and — as in recent editions — it took part with an exhibition that was among those highlighted by the “Punti di Vista”, the prestigious panel of experts and art critics that brings qualified insight to the event.

As always, every exhibition at our Spazio Chirale isn’t limited to the works alone, but reveals in all its importance the creative and productive process that — especially in conceptual art — is an integral part of the work itself.

The installation AAA Anima Gemella Cercasi (“Soulmate Wanted”), shown for Rome Art Week 2023, was no exception; on the contrary, in this case the work itself was a process. A process that profoundly concerns each of us and that for this reason is especially engaging: the search for one’s partner — for the person we romantically call a soulmate.

In the era of digital and dating apps, the very title of the work — which echoes the personal ads published in the old newspapers of the economic-boom years — reminds us that this is a timeless process.

On entering Spazio Chirale, the first thing that struck the very many spectators was the video — stretching across most of the room — showing the sculpted body of Scilla Maris, the beautiful protagonist of the installation, portrayed swimming submerged in the blue, crystalline waters of an unidentified, sunny Mediterranean location.

Just as in human courtship sight is the first of the senses involved, the audience’s attention to the work was also immediately captured by the image.

Then, attention moved to the sound: a wash of unmistakably marine sensations, with a bass line that recalled the pulse of the heart.

But while the gaze was captured by the light and colours — drawn in by images with an almost advertising flavour, no surprise that the video ran on a series of modern LED panels usually used for outdoor advertising — the more attentive viewers noticed words scrolling below.

They were verses from a poem. Verses with a vaguely erotic flavour, speaking of love and feelings.

On the floor were crystal containers. Inside the crystal were verses printed on paper strips.

Each spectator was invited to collect the verses and recompose their own poem. Because — if it is sight that attracts our attention — it is the discovery of the soul that makes us fall in love.

Scilla Maris’s poem was on the LedWalls and in the flyer handed to every visitor, but the real discovery was the personal poem each spectator was invited to compose. The soulmate is the soul of the other that we are able to discover and reshape. Just like a work of art.

Scilla Maris is the artistic name by which the intelligent and ironic professional portrayed in the video — and author of the poem broken into verses that gave life to the installation — is known on social networks.

The video was shot with an amateur underwater camera by the photographer Carola Gatta, who has been collaborating with our facility for some time.

The environmental sonification and video editing were carried out by the artist Leonardo Zaccone, our co-founder and partner.