Aldo Cibic. (in)complete

(in)complete in an art installation by Aldo Cibic, a co-production of Caffè Florian presented in concurrence with the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale, from May 25 to September 8, 2018.
Caffè Florian is a historic Venetian coffee house. It was at these tables than the idea for the first Art Biennale was discussed in the late nineteenth century. Art is at home at Florian’s with exhibition cycle Unica, curated by Florian’s art director Stefano Stipitivich. Stipitivich invites a different artist every year and asks them to reinvent the spaces of the café.
The 2018 edition of Unicahas artist Aldo Cibic participate with an installation that is also a research programme: (in)complete is a digital platform that allows us to investigate and understand relevant themes of our times.
The art has been installed in the Chinese Room, turned for the occasion in the meeting point for the real and the virtual.
Cibic’s art is a modern reinterpretation of a Venetian alcove: three walls made of tinted Plexiglas canes encircle a screen that seems to float mid-air. The installation is an extension of the Chinese Room and integrates with perfect sensitivity and harmony with the genius lociat Florian’s. It is an example of how a distinctly modern piece of art may coexist beautifully with a piece of Venetian history.
The alcove is the scene for a digital platform in continuous evolution. Visitors will be asked to participate in an inquiry about current events on the themes of nature, society, technology, and the future of design.
(in)complete is an interactive installation. A coloured, moving cloud is shown on monitors and illustrated the data that has been gathered thus far. Visitors will be invited to contribute anonymously their answers to sixteen questions. Data will be fed into the system, elaborated, and visualized on the monitor in real time. Every questionnaire generates a unique 3D model for every respondent, who will receive a copy of the model via e-mail.
Participants will contribute to build collective intelligence, visualized in form of a coloured cloud in perpetual motion, changing as the data are fed into it.
In an era of historical revolution in environment, society, and technology, (in)complete is a tool that uses data to investigate the spirit of our times. (in)completewas born as an open-source project in constant evolution, hence destined to be forever ‘incomplete’.
Thanks to the data that will have been gathered over the course of three months, the project will enter its phase two as a platform for discussion: a participative space open to all that are willing to contribute – however much or however little. All to understand which actions we may undertake to imagine and plan sustainable future.
The questions asked for (in)completeare related to the theme of the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. 
The current and sixteenth edition of the Biennale, curated by Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects, is title Freespaceand is about the spirit of generosity and the sense for humanity that architecture has as one of its primary focus – the attention to the quality of space. A sense for humanity that reflects our responsibility and respect for nature and that explores the genius locias a way to integrate culture and places.
 
Aldo Cibic was born in Vicenza, Italy, in 1955. In 1981, as a partner in Sottsass Associati, he was a founding member of Memphis. His projects, such as "Microrealities" (2004) and "Rethinking Happiness" (2010), have been presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale. 
With Cibicworkshop, a multidisciplinary research centre, he began to focus more heavily on alternative sustainable project types aimed at enhancing whole local areas and defining new cultural, emotional and environmental awarenesses of public space. 
Aldo Cibic teaches at the Politecnico di Milano, the IUAV, Venice, and the Domus Academy; he is an honorary professor at the Tongji University, Shanghai.

 
 

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