(in)complete
In concurrence with the Venice Architecture Biennale, Caffè Florian houses an interactive, participative installation, from May 25 to September 8, 2018.
Caffè Florian is a historic Venetian coffee house. It was at these tables than the idea for the first Art Biennale was discussed in the late nineteenth century. Art is at home at Florian’s with exhibition cycle Unica, curated by Florian’s art director Stefano Stipitivich. Stipitivich invites a different artist every year and asks them to reinvent the spaces of the café.
The 2018 edition of Unica has artist Aldo Cibic participate with an installation that is also a research programme: (in)complete is a digital platform that allows us to investigate and understand relevant themes of our times.
The art has been installed in the evocative Chinese Room, turned for the occasion in the meeting point for the real and the virtual.
Cibic’s art is a modern reinterpretation of a Venetian alcove: three walls made of tinted Plexiglas canes encircle a screen, which shows a digital platform in continuous evolution. Visitors will be asked to participate in an inquiry about current events on the themes of nature, society, technology, and the future of design.
The installation is an extension of the Chinese Room and integrates with perfect sensitivity and harmony with the genius loci at Florian’s. It is an example of how a distinctly modern piece of art may coexist beautifully with a piece of Venetian history. (in)complete is an interactive installation. A coloured, moving cloud is shown on monitors, illustrating the data that has been gathered thus far. Visitors will be invited to contribute anonymously their answers to 16 questions. Data will be fed into the system, elaborated, and visualized on the monitor in real time. Every questionnaire generates a unique 3D model for every respondent, who will receive a copy of the model via e-mail. Participants will contribute to build collective intelligence, visualized in form of a coloured cloud in perpetual motion, changing as the data are fed into it.