Lorenzo Mangili - Start Station (Caballa di Goethe) - Detail N°2

The primary function of the installation is that of signpost:  it marks the entrance to La Marrana; it displays its name, opening hours, and daily program of events.  Starting from this function, the work does not shy from manifesting the conceptual and expressive content of its status.  The bicycle, which bears an excerpt from a poem written by Goethe referring to the relationship of art and nature (a quotation selected by the clients), is a “cabala” (from the ancient Hebrew cŕbala, construed as a “horse” [caballa] necessary along the impassable paths of knowledge), ready to lead the visitor from station to station along the exhibition route.  Thus, the machine is a symbol of transport and the duration of the experience, but it is also a metaphor of art itself, which is a “horse” with respect to the enigmas of existence.  It is no accident that the bicycle leaned against the stony and electronic “obelisk” (the evolved version of the stones that once marked the beginning of ancient roads) is the women’s version and, at the same time, is painted the color assigned by Western culture to signify the masculine gender:  it is, like art, the joint representation of masculine and feminine.  The movement and fading of the artificial lights used to compose the text on the screen display, some of which move randomly upwards like fireflies and the steel antenna attempt to harmonize with the uncertain rhythm of the leaves and pulsation of the surrounding woods.