ORTO SUL COLLE DELL’INFINITO | NEO Narrative Enviroments Operas

The lower floor of the National Centre for Leopardian Studies has been completely remodeled. The project approved for this space has a contemporary style and features up-to-date contents, languages and instruments. A guided tour “inside” the world-famous poem L’Infinito takes place here: even though being abstract, poetry is treated as a monument, an actual place to visit. Through the poem, the storytelling aims to explain the author’s feelings in detail, but with a simple language that is accessible to everyone. This does not feel like a lesson, though; it is an intriguing narration that brings visitors close to the poet’s personal story and sensibility, which are professed in the poem. The narration starts with an introduction and a reading of the poetry. Then, five “acts” delve into the biographic context of the work and the experience of infinity on the hill, with its philosophical and emotional implications. Lastly, the verses are made into pieces, words and sound and built up again to explain the inner structure of the poem. The text was curated by FAI and discussed in advance with different members of the CSNL Scientific Committee; among them Fiorenza Ceragioli, Fabiana Cacciapuoti, Laura Melosi and especially Luigi Blasucci, emeritus professor at Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and eminent Leopardi scholar, whose support was crucial for the final draft. The visitors are lead by the narration through a number of minimally staged spaces: six big screens for immersive visions are set on dark walls, and a black line draws a path on the white pavement, from the entrance to the exit. The narrator has the voice of Lella Costa, with Massimo Polizio reading some extracts from the Zibaldone. The pictures that play along the story were shot in the kitchen garden, in the library of Leopardi’s home, in the town of Recanati and its surroundings; they are meant to be immersive backgrounds that help the visitor focus on the listening. The visit is not limited to the narration, but features more contents and interactive experiences that involve the public directly, in uncommon and surprising ways. For example, a touch screen at the beginning of the exposition provides the visitors with many different translations of the poem; at the end, a few theatrical performances –  collected thanks to Rai Teche – are played on a screen. At the end of the narration, the visitors can live an optional, but very suggestive experience: an immersive installation inspired by the poem but developed from a free interpretation of the curators, which conveys the feeling of Infinity. It makes the public get lost in a transcendent atmosphere and it is purposely disorienting and surreal. Visitors are made aware of some safety information before entering, since the installation triggers all the senses; just like what Leopardi described in L’Infinito. After the narration, the experiment encourages the public to focus on meditation and introspection, to face Infinity before following the steps of the poet in the kitchen garden. The experience in this area has its own background music: a piece by Schoenberg (1874 – 1951), VerklärteNacht, Op. 4, executed by Berliner Philharmoniker, Herbert von Karajan, 1943.

ARCHITECTURAL AND MULTIMEDIA PROJECT
NEO [Narrative EnvironmentsOperas]
curated by Fabia Molteni, Cinzia Rizzo, Franco Rolle,
in collaboration with Omar Crippa, Laura Faraci, Massimiliano Boz
Director of photography: Filippo Chiesa

MULTIMEDIA INSTALLATION AND STAGING
AcusonSrl, Torino
Barberini Allestimenti Srl, Castelvecchio (PU)