Matteo Nasini opens Marsèlleria’s New York space

Marsèll, a high-end shoe brand from Milan that like other enlightened fashion houses devotes part of its resources to funding art exhibitions, opens a new space in the Chelsea gallery district of New York. The first show at Marsèlleria New York is produced in collaboration with Clima Gallery, Milan and dedicated to the Italian artist Matteo Nasini, whose research uses multiple media that allow us otherwise unaccessible experiences.

Matteo Nasini comes from a music background, having been educated at Rome’s Conservatory. It isn’t surprising then to learn that the project he presents at Marsèlleria, Sparkling Matter, lies ultimately in the experience of sounds, and particularly those produced by dreams.

Matteo Nasini: Sparkling Matter. Exhibition view at Marsèlleria New York

During previous night-time presentations of the project – at Marsèlleria Milan and at Rome’s Galleria Nazionale – Nasini placed a sensor on a subject’s head, to record changes in temperature relative to the activation of certain areas of the brain during different phases of sleep. Viewers were invited to lie down on the mattresses that were provided, tuck themselves in under artist-made blankets, and listen to the “music” that was generated from the “dream detector” and passed through a software according to parameters crafted by the artist himself, who then remixed them live during the performance. The eerie collection of sounds is set to become more agitated as REM sleep occurs, and soften during other sleep phases – therefore alternately lulling viewers to sleep and waking them up abruptly when dreams start.

From those first recorded experiences, Nasini extracted the resulting “dream” files and imported them into a 3D modeling software, that allowed him to achieve a possible physical representation of them. Adjusting the parameters to allow 3D printing, he then proceeded to produce the sculptural referents to those dream experiences. The sculptures were printed with a new beta model that allows 3D printing with porcelain. With their cylindrical or conical shapes, they might resemble a papyrus carrying an enigmatic message made of peaks and valleys. The message is undecipherable, still we delve into the contemplation of the beauty of its mystery.

Matteo Nasini, Dream Portrait (2016), 3D-printed porcelain, 30.5 x 15 cm

On the night of Friday, March 3, 2017, Marsèlleria and Matteo Nasini will therefore welcome visitors to an environment composed once again of mattresses and beautiful blankets created by the artist. A new subject will sleep in a separate, adjacent room, generating a new changing soundscape. Guests will have from the opening at 11PM to the early morning to rest and enjoy the experience as long as they please. They will be surrounded by sculpted past dreams, and by sounds from dreams that will eventually become sculptures – but only after this live performance, where dreamer and public will be joined together in an impossible communication.

Matteo Nasini: Sparkling Matter, in collaboration with Clima Gallery, Milan. At Marsèlleria, New York through March 31, 2017
Sleep Concert: Friday, March 3 – 10PM to dawn

Matteo Nasini: Sparkling Matter. Exhibition view at Marsèlleria New York