INVINCIBLE — A BIG BACTERIA PROJECT
Colosseum, Rome, 17th—19th Sep 2015t, 8pm—2am
An interdisciplinary cultural project under patronage of UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, the German Embassy in Rome, and the City of Rome Department of Culture. UNESCO proclaimed 2015 as the International Year of Light and Light-Based Technologies in order to highlight the key role of light in science and culture.
Light is a basic condition for life – for humans, animals, plants and microorganisms. In her project Invincible, Sabine Kacunko reflects the light-conditioned origins and transformations of life by using innovative technology to spotlight the nature of bacteria in the context of the World’s heritage and health.
The Coliseum is well known, its the largest amphitheatre in the world and an iconic symbol of the ancient and present Rome – the eternal city. As the world-wide icon of cultural heritage, it will be illuminated by a huge light-installation projecting live the bacterial biofilm (patina) on its most exposed northwest side. This recently restored spot of ca. 1.400 m2 carefully takes into account daylight and season´s light situations as well as the topography and traffic conditions. Together, they all allow a whole-time illumination of the chosen spot which can be seen from Via Imperiale all the way along to Piazza Venetia.
COURSE OF THE LIVE MEDIA PERFORMANCE AT THE COLOSSEUM
A sample of patina – the natural organic film – will be removed from the surface of the building and placed under a microscope. The connected projectors transmit the images, preferably in real time, on the extern surface of the object from which the
patina has been removed. For a moment the ‘secret’ microcosm of the patina emerges from the darkness into the light. The metabolism of the microorganisms produces substances of sediments – pigments – that create intense compositions of constantly changing and different lights and colours. The illuminated object becomes a ‘Living Light Sculpture’. In this way the patina in the dark appears as what it really is: a colourful world of pigments arising from the sediments of the microorganisms. The simultaneous multimedia presentation of microcosm and macrocosm creates on the surfaces parallel worlds that usually remain hidden in daily life. The quintessence of invincible is the celebration of life and its basic condition: transformation or metamorphosis.
The illumination happens not only on a conceptual and visual level (illumination of a public building through live video projections) but also on that material by integrating and visualising the microorganisms that equip the essential artistic instrument with a model of communication and social forms that are intelligent and capable to survive. The microorganisms protect the monumental good from destruction being evoked by the harmful environmental influences and secure in this way the transmission of our cultural memory. The project invincible stands as an example of lasting global cooperation in the conservation of cultural assets and natural resources. It intends to shed light on the processes of democratization, the concepts of sustainability as well as the ecological and economical structures investigating the complex relation between man and nature is presented to the local audience – and to world via Internet.
TEAM
Science: INVINCIBLE is scientifically accompanied and supported by Dr. Volker Brinkmann (Max Planck Institute, Berlin), Prof. Giovanni Antonini (Institute of Biology, Univ. Roma Tre), Prof. Thomas Bjarnsholt and Michael Larsen (Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology, University of Copenhagen), Prof. Slavko Kacunko (Department of Arts and Cultural Studies (IKK), University of Copenhagen), the MICRO HUMAN NPO, Berlin, among others.
Dancers: Joris Camelin, Germany; Enem Gökce Ogultekin, Germany
Sound: Dr.Paul Modler University of Art and Design Karlsruhe
A special thanks to our partners who have contributed to achieve this project:
