Project Info
The exhibition “Riflessioni” is presented in the Italian Embassy garden as a dialogue between the works of the Italian duo Antonello Ghezzi (formed by Nadia Antonello and Paolo Ghezzi) and of the Greek artist Christina Nakou. The exhibition attempts to affirm how the Mediterranean can be a place of reflection, a place that allows us to imagine, and above all to be human, accepting the fact that life is full of metamorphosis and reflections.
The exhibition draws inspiration from Nuccio Ordine’s book “The Threshold of Shadow. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Giordano Bruno”, which sees divinity in nature and seeks to make individual reason coincide with universal reason. The reference to Narcissus, the search for the light within the shadow and nature as the realm of metamorphosis and reverberations are the fundamental points of inspiration of the exhibition in the Embassy Garden.The works invite viewers to perceive their inner world as a reflection of the Universe and the garden as a serene space into which to resonate, as a precious part of cosmic Nature.
In her mosaic works, Christina Nakou draws inspiration from the Byzantine mosaics of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna and the works of Italian architect Carlo Scarpa, in Venice.
The first part of the exhibition displays a series of opus vermiculatum type mosaics, illustrating the diffusion of light over the sea, the emergence of colors and their countless metamorphoses. Presented throughout the garden, the works invite viewers to navigate through space and time, arriving, as in a journey, to the second part of the exhibition, dedicated to the night.
“Small Letter to G.” an installation that presents a small mosaic in the middle of the garden’s two large cypress trees, functions as a mirror, inviting the viewer to be reflected along with the sky and giving recognition to the vertical axis that connects us to the Universe. In the second part of the garden, two more mosaics, “Reflections of the Universe” and “Night Sea,” draw inspiration from the metamorphoses of light on water.
At the end of the exhibition, visitors get to “Reflections of the Sea”, a large silver drawing on a surface composed of iron sheets, evoking the nocturnal reflections of light on the sea. The work is placed in front of a dark, water-filled surface that allows light to be reflected, while the mirroring of the work itself on the water creates a vertical visual axis that tends to the infinite.
From this conceptual reversal, between below and above, we arrive at “Shooting Stars”, a sound installation by Antonello Ghezzi. Thanks to a live broadcast from the Northern Cross radio telescope, visitors can listen to sounds coming from the atmosphere and in particular recognize the stars that will fall live during the visit. The Bologna artists ideally bring a wish-making machine to Athens, emphasizing, thanks to the frequent meteorites falling in the portion of the sky above the Mediterranean, the need to dream and wish for something in the future.