Project Room #9 | Roberto Fanari. Galerie des glaces

On November 21, the final event of La stanza di Proust, the 2018 Project Room series curated by Flavio Arensi, will open with the installation Galerie des glaces by Roberto Fanari (Cagliari, 1984).

Through the three acts of La stanza di Proust, Arensi has invited the audience to observe the events of society and humanity through sounds, absences, and presences, both past and future. These three moments unfold within the same room to form a single reflection on the role of sculpture in the current historical moment. With the three artists involved in the 2018 Project Rooms – Arensi states – we aim to recover, through their work, the idea of an expanded consciousness that does not rely on the more traditional means of sculpture but seeks its deeper concepts through technology and space. Following the investigation of technology and existential incidences by Donato Piccolo and Roberto Pugliese’s perspective on a place where the material of sculpture can become intangible because it is musical, here is the final act with Roberto Fanari, who, by creating an empty room, compels the audience to engage with their own image.

For the Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, Roberto Fanari has conceived a true hall of mirrors, reducing the minimal lines that define the space of the Project Room to transform his sculpture-architecture into a rarefied place where the visitor is alone with themselves. Roberto Fanari reconstructs a “ballroom” typical of ancient royal palaces by intervening on the perimeter of the empty room, stripping the walls of all decorative necessities and leaving only the mirrors to interact with the visitor. The reflected image forces the person to confront their inner self. Standing before a mirror means seeking a point of mediation between the different levels of the psyche. In this way, the observer observes themselves, bearing witness to their own history. Fanari, who normally illustrates relationships through wire-soldered figure-models, here relinquishes the participation of his mannequin-actors to free those who enter from any ties and forms of sharing, since the scene can only unfold in extreme intimacy.

In the environment created by Fanari, music specially composed by Francesco Fugazza will resonate. The composition is based on the sampling of the main working materials of the sculptor, which was then reworked in post-production to create a sequence of sound photographs inspired by Gymnopédie No. 3 by Erik Satie.