Residency: September 10th to October 4th
Exhibition opening: October 3rd
What does contemporary art do inside the Anatomy Museum - MUSA - Sistema Museale dell’università degli Studi della Campania ‘Luigi Vanvitelli’ - Napoli ? How does the artistic gaze of the present engage with and challenge those ancient tools of biological research?
The encounter between curatorial research and the inquisitive spirit of the MUSA’s administration resulted in this project, permeated not only by multiple disciplines but also by different temporalities.
In La Padula’s words, “Taking into account the profound museographic tradition of biomedicine developed over its five centuries of history, the installation Anatomy of Qualities proposes a relational and derivative investigation into the different materialities of the history of anatomy and into effective ways of presenting and fixing the biological body laid bare before the lens of objectivity. Anatomy of Qualities engages in a dialogue with MUSA's 18th- and 19th-century collections using the idea of self-portrait as a platform for the contemporary anatomical body, working experimentally with fire and smoke to trace the living imprint of human beings on glass plates.”
By introducing a subjective dimension, presumably absent in scientific pieces, this intervention intertwines the experimental element, the personal dimension, sensuality and a present situated in the study of the living.
“The new experimental aesthetic forms of art might shed speculative light on regions that are still unclear, where science can then expand its rationale and explanatory capacity.
MUSA, open to the public Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
On Saturday, October 4, and Sunday, October 5, special opening from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. as part of the presentation of the BIENALSUR 2025 exhibition.