garage BENTIVOGLIO

Artificial light, with its pervasive diffusion in homes, represents perhaps one of the most disruptive social changes. If the spatial division of domestic environments has not undergone significant changes since Roman times, just compare the plan of a republican domus with any modern apartment, the appearance of fixed and constant artificial light has certainly changed the perception we have of the spaces and objects that surround us on a daily basis. Art is then the field in which technological experimentation has most influenced our eyes, giving us statues and paintings illuminated in a perfect and homogeneous way. Works that had known the shadow for centuries, thus end up being inside the white museum rooms, without the possibility of changing along with the path of the Sun. \nThe rooms of Palazzo Bentivoglio, often illuminated during the day by the only light that enters through the windows on the garden, still allow you to see works and furnishings immersed in the twilight, to have the vague outline of the projected shapes drawn on the walls. It almost seems that here Prometheus must still steal fire from the gods to hand it over to men. \nShadow is at the origin of painting, as Pliny the Elder tells us: Calliroe traces on the wall the profile of his beloved about to leave, thanks to the shadow obtained from a lamp. This story can then be accompanied by one of the key texts of Western philosophy, namely the myth of the cave, with all the ontological implications that the shadow carries with it from that moment on. \nThe Carlton by Ettore Sottsass is one of the most representative design objects of the 20th century and, like all Memphis furniture, it has the characteristic of being selfish, of turning all eyes towards itself and not wanting anything else next to it, “like monuments in the squares”. \nResting on a Bacterio base, the unmistakable pattern designed by Sottsass himself, the bookcase stands out on the wall with its totemic silhouette and attests to the prevalence of form over function, paving the way for countless bookcases that have made aesthetic data the fundamental component, such as the Bookworm (1994) by Ron Arad for Kartell. \nSo, thanks to a simple play of lights, a Carlton collectible miniature is projected onto the wall in a human dimension, leading us to fix the shadow, to make it seem real for a moment, as happened to the prisoners in Plato's mythical cave.