Templum

TEMPLUM

“Alla Natura. L’azione artistica come ultimo rito magico e salvifico” curated by Alessandra Carini and Benedetta Pezzi in July 2022
In ancient Rome, the templum was a square frame positioned on 4 pillars through which a fragment of sky was circumscribed. Through this, the figure of the ‘augur’ was in charge of observing what was happening in it (mainly movements of birds) to read omens and predictions about the future.
The landscape in which Palazzo San Giacomo is situated (pianura padana) is characterized by wide flat expanses of land which leave room for the contemplation of enormous proportions of sky. In turn, the frescoes that run along most of the ceilings of the building represent the zodiacal signs (in this case Gemini represented by two eight-pointed stars).
The zodiacal signs represent archaic beliefs that have survived to the present day, and which give evidence of a time when human beings did not consider the future of their existence as something alien to the cosmos, there was, and still is, a belief in a clear interrelation between the two.
The intention of this piece is to make a reflection about the limited vision of the Terrestrial. Looking to the sky for answers responds to a principle of magical thinking, illogical and acceptance of the unknown that is often supplanted by the scientific and constructed explanation of the whole.