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- Project: Tobias Rehberger: MAXXI Project
- Date: October 2009
- Client: Tobias Rehberger
- Contractor: MAXXI - Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo
- Location: Rome, Italy
- Tasks: Systems design and implementation, technical consulting.
Frankfurtean artist Tobias Rehberger was honored to create the very first installation for the soon-to-open, Zaha Hadid-built MAXXI Museum for the art of the XXI. century in Rome – and MESO was honored to create the software intelligence behind it.
Simple as most great art pieces, this one consists of no more than a smart rule of play, some colored lights – courtesy of Zumtobel Illuminazione of Italy – and a little computer program that extracts exactly one color value from a video DVD.
The video played is the curators’ choice; and the title of the artwork, consequently, will always be the title of the movie that’s playing.
Notably, the visitors will never, ever have a chance of actually seeing the film itself. All they ever get, sitting on the Hadid-built bench underneath the installation, shall be the beautiful fluorescence emanating from the ledge of the museum’s roof, while they may be pondering Plato’s cave allegory.
By the way, the MAXXI claims the title of first National Museum for contemporary art. We’re flattered to have taken part in the first artwork on show. Does this make us makers of the first national contemporary artwork in Italy?
Whatever the answer, the installation will be visible at the museum each night throughout the winter, until the Museum opens its doors for the general public later in 2010.
The MESO Team: Max Wolf, Sebastian Oschatz, Andreas Karlen, Selin Oczelik, Philipp Lorenz