Speculum Celestiale Dialectics of the Natural

tuesday 21 june at 7:30 pm till sunrise wednesday 22 june 2011 - Vigna San Martino

Verum sine mendacio, certum et verissimum. Quod est inferius, est sicut quod est superius. Et quod est superius, est sicut quod est inferius, ad perpetranda miracola rei unius. Et sicut omnes res fuerunt ab uno, meditatione unius. Sic omnes res natae fuerunt ab hac una re, adaptatione. Pater eius est Sol, mater eius Luna. Portavit illud ventus in ventre suo. Nutrix eius terra est. Pater omnis telesmi totius mundi est hic. Vis eius integra est, si versa fuerit in terram.

Hermes Trismegistus

Speculum Celestiale, conceived in 2007 by Maurizio Elettrico, Domenico Mennillo and Raffaella Morra specifically for the Vigna San Martino, an extraordinary environment of agricultural survival in the heart of a metropolis, it is mirror of natural and artistic beauties, an encounter-crash between art and nature.
For centuries, western culture has debated the definition of the term Nature, often framing the question as an antagonistic comparison between two poles. This dualism has from time to time distinguished between nature and man, between matter and the spirit, the human and the non-human, and so on, reasoning on separate systems, thus defining a ‘schizophrenia of the soul’ which has fragmented the physical world and the realm of the mind. Stripped of the mystical and rationalistic visions that have long distanced it from the human progress, the dialectic of the natural still however provides an answer to the pitfall of dichotomy through the cumulative development of mediations. The system of the senses immerses us in the world - the body is pervaded with continuous feedback that exposes it to an inescapable alliance, and thus, in the hands of man, biodiversity becomes a vocabulary of components which are primigenial, ancestral, and biologically based i.e. innate. Man’s great wealth derives from his ability to construct hybridisation with otherness and it is precisely this going beyond the mirror that characterises the human peculiarity of hybridisation, that cultural non-balance or opening of the system which makes it possible to bring to the surface man’s most authentic expressive capabilities. Humanity forms, through the abandonment of solitude and the pleasure of connecting with what is different, a plural body capable of producing new states of non-balance, and reinforcing his conjugative drive towards the world. A positive overturning of hybris which, no longer constituting a risk or the inability to be contained in a form, becomes a motor for union with the world, fully accepting the transformation and the uncertainty of the future.
Speculum Celestiale Dialectics of the Natural, organized by E-M Arts and Fondazione Morra, activates synaesthetic abilities, allowing the senses to freely perceive (aesthesia) together (syn); those who take part in the Dialectics of the Natural night can cross the threshold and alter, if only for a short time, their cognitive performances: to hear the pounding rhythm of the colours of nature, relish the sound of poetry, experience with the sense of touch the flavour of food, visualise the sounds and pitch of music, smell the movement of dance, and alter the balance of the body towards ethereal states of materiality.
For this occasion the Speculum Celestiale Dialectics of the Natural will be published, the third publication of the series. This will include texts by Raffaella Morra, Maurizio Elettrico, Domenico Mennillo, the tales by Matteo Fraterno, the poetries Sete by Giulia Scuro, La vita… per un canto by Salvatore Castaldo, Candide ed erette nudità by Maurizio Papagni, and Napoli / Kunst Clown: Just Desserts by Paul Sakoilsky, the performances Crisalide by Rosaria Castiglione, Luminescenza by Marie-Thérèse Sitzia, Embodiment Merian/de Senlis by Marco Zezza, and Dov’è la mia terra by Mary Zygouri, the artistic menu Das Teuflische Bankett by Paul Renner, the music section A cena col signor Voland by Nino Bruno e le 8 Tracce, and the techno-section lieber orgien als morgien by Stefan Draschan & Chris Wandling, and lastly the Garden of Visions’ list of rare fruit-trees and that of the breeding butterflies in Ab Anima.