fig: the underlying chthonic plan from 1991

 

fig: the underlying chthonic idea of the Malebolge concept from 1999-2000

 

 

 

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ABOUT THE UNDERLYING CHTHONIC CONCEPT OF THE TERRA MORALE - MALEBOLGE  EXHIBITION

 

Underlying idea is a plan from 1991, drawn up for a complete set-up of the video works which were realized at that moment. This plan was based on a panoramic, ‘Virgilian’ design with a central space. The Bulicame videotape intended for display outside the actual exhibition space, became a chthonic video object in the central space.
In addition the design of the exhibition is based on different plans for both new works and set-ups from then on, with more vertical ancient Greek and Dantesque dimensions as principle.

 

THE GREEK CONCEPT - HADES / THE AVERNIAN CONCEPT- AORNIS

Diagram of the chthonic system from Hades, the ancient Greek underworld, based on the Greek concept of earth’s geology.
Four streams: OkeanosAcheroon, Kokytos and Pyriphlegethoon.
Crater lake: Aornis.
Three subterranean lakes: an unnamed lake with seething water and sludge, and the Stygian and Acherousian lake.
Abyss: Tartaros, the ‘most tremendous’ chasm deeply in earth.

In antiquity the underworld was associated generally with the Avernian Lake in Italy near Naples.
The name of this crater lake was fancifully derived from a-ornis, (literally translated  ’a-bird’, that means ‘without birds’), as birds couldn’t fly over the lake because of the mephetic and poisonous exhalations out of the deep.
Mostly the Avernian Lake was regarded as the entrance to the underworld, but sometimes Avernus (or Averna) also meant the underworld itself.

 

THE DANTESQUE CONCEPT  - INFERNO

Dante’s underwold Inferno is made after classical examples of the Shades. It is also made after scenic aspects from Italy and foreign landscapes, which still can be retraced up to now.
Basic form of Dante’s hell is a funnel-shaped gap covered by soil, and surrounded by dense woods.
The gap reaches the deepest point in the earth.
The Inferno consists of nine shrinking, increasingly deep circles, ending in a frozen pit in earth’s centre.

The river on the border of the first circle is the Acheron.  The river between circles 5 and 6 is the Styx. Phlegethon is the outmost ring of  circle 7, that consists of three rings.
The three rivers continue in a huge waterfall, plunging down from the 7th into the 8th circle. The ruddy Bulicame stream is a small canal connecting the stream of circle 7 with the waterfall on the border of circle 8.
Circle 8 is a huge funnel of rock with a series of deep narrow trenches called ‘bowges’. This circle is called by Dante Malebolge ('Malbowges').

The Cocytus is the frozen pit in circle 9 at the deepest point of hell.
It is remarkably not boiling hot but ice-cold: like 'a lake so cold that it seemed more glass than water’.
In the middle of the of the ice floor is the figure of Dis. The grotesque figure is frozen fast and has three faces, each with its own colour.
Passing through the centre of the earth there is a rockey cavern with a down-hill stream. The cavern is the way out ‘upon the stars’. The rivulet is an outlet of the the stream of oblivion, called Lethe.

 

THE VIRGILIAN CONCEPT - INFERNA

Virgil’s description of the Shades follows the traditional concept of the underworld (Lat. Inferna). In his poetry also four rivers occur, but as usually not always the same ones, and sometimes exchanged mutually.
The Virgilan underworld is less deep and has more horizontal perspectives and panoramic views. In relation to Virgil video cycle and exhibition follow the scenery of the underworld to a lesser degree.
Used are particularly the Virgilian atmosphere and the scenic elements around the entrance to the underworld. Not only elements of the land and sea area around the Avernian Lake, but also of areas further down, described in Virgil’s Aeneid.

 

THE MALEBOLGE CONCEPT

The exhibition TERRA MORALE tried to use the chthonic vertical and horizontal elements of the classical and dantesque underworld and the area around, as a principle of division for the works over the space that was available.
It was subtitled Malebolge because of the possibility for a set-up in a conical, bellows-like form, in which four Bulicame paintings and six video installations could be spread over three floors, within a shrinking both horizontal and vertical threefold structure.
The horizontal set-up consisted of three sectors. In this case indicated with the terms oceanic, stygian and avernian.
The vertical design over three floors consisted of three levels, indicated from top to bottom with the terms stygian, phlegeian and acherousian.

(ndk 2000)

 

> Bulicame   > Palinuro   > Miseno   > Palinuro and Miseno   > Vulcano Eolico
> Hylas' Song   > Nox Umida   > Malebolge   > Versions of the Blue Hour
> Terra Morale  > The C of Scylla   > Old Ocean
> Not from Land any Longer   > remaining projects