Press conference: Wednesday, December 6, 6 p.m. at Galerija hrvatskog školskog muzeja, Hebrangova 5 - Presentation of the light installation on the facade of the NMMU: Wednesday, December 6, 7 p.m. Cabruja's intervention on the NMMU facade is titled Wanderers, translated from the Spanish term “errantes”, which carries a dual meaning—directly conveying the idea of wandering in a nomadic way while also hinting at inherent flaws or “errors”. Cabruja’s “Wanderers” features flawed LED lights on the museum front, each with encoded faults that cyclically repeat, creating a silent choreography. This nuanced display becomes perceptible only through a patient pause at the NMMU entrance. The facade of the building, currently under reconstruction following the 2020 earthquake, contrasts with the festive Christmas lighting adorning the square in front of the museum. The primary focus guiding Cabruja's investigation is the dissonance between the policies governing public spaces—increasingly reliant on market-driven innovations—and the biological needs of human bodies. Specifically, the intermittent operation of LED lights, which began replacing halogen ones in the 90s due to their ecological efficiency, quietly disrupts the circadian rhythm of bodies. As eloquently detailed by Jonathan Crary in "24/7. Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep," the acceleration of capitalism in recent decades has led to a perpetual state of activity, alertness, and visibility, eroding individuals' mental states and basic needs, such as sleep. The era of constant illumination reached an insane peak in the late 1990s when a Russian/European space consortium proposed launching satellites into orbit to reflect sunlight back onto Earth, aiming to provide nighttime lighting for entire metropolitan areas. Fortunately, the project never materialized, as it would have represented the dystopian culmination of the total observability attributed by Pasolini to fascism and, later, to consumerist society. In such a perpetually illuminated reality, nuances would be imperceptible, alterations would go unnoticed, and the appreciation of dim-light shadows would be impossible. The erratic palpitations of Cabruja’s intervention bring the attention of passers-by to light itself, paradoxically revealing and making it visible. The entire building, with its architecture fragmentedly illuminated by unstable LED lights, resembles a body in pain—an organic system driven to madness by constant exposure to the radiations of lighting artifacts. This humanization of the electric system, while expressing discomfort against the invasive presence of illumination, may also signify a potential escape, the promise of an ultimate error, the final breakdown. In the event of a relieving blackout, our bodies might find rest, and our eyes, slowly re-accustomed to darkness, might even start perceiving nuances again. Benedetta Casini
