I ran into Cosmic Magnet, the great work of Gino de Dominicis, a little by chance. I was organizing a visit to Foligno, inquiring about what to see in the city and I found some pictures of the huge skeleton housed in the former Church of the Holy Trinity in Annunziata.
The visit to Cosmic Magnet is part of the museum itinerary combined with CIAC, the Italian Center of Contemporary Art in Foligno which is based in another building on the opposite side of the historic center.
Who is Gino de Dominicis
The Cosmic Magnet exhibition opens with a long video presenting the artist and its provocations. The artist was born in the Marche region, in Ancona, in 1947 where he graduated from the art institute, and died in Rome in 1998, where he had moved about thirty years earlier. Although the first exhibitions had been organized in Ancona, already in 1967, it was in Rome that it exploded and made itself immediately recognizable: shifted artistic expression from museums and art galleries to public places, such as streets and squares. In his DNA there was immediately the provocation, as when still very young, he threw giant birth control pills in St. Peter’s Square.
His artistic production can be divided into two: the first part, until the end of the seventies, in which he works with installations, sculptures and performances. At this stage it focuses on theory of the immortality of the body and on theory Second solution of immortality (The universe is immobile) . In the first, he argues that everything that actually exists does not really exist, as it is mortal. Presence is only an experiment of nature that verifies all its productive possibilities. In his theory, man is therefore identified with nothingness, but he appeals to science and technology that can lead him to be immortal. This theory is obviously accompanied by some very provocative works of the artist, among which he remembers Zodiac of 1970 in which the symbols of the zodiac signs are represented by exposing people and living animals with the exception of two dead fish lying on the floor.
The second theory, Second solution of immortality (The universe is immobile) it dates back to 1972, the year in which it was presented at the Venice Biennale. This is materialized through an installation that has made public opinion widely discussed and divided: a young boy, suffering from Down syndrome, is his work. The boy, Paolo Rosa, is seated in a corner while observing three other works by Gino de Dominicis already exhibited on previous occasions. This theory is antithetical to the previous one and argues that it is the universe that is immobile and that people are immortal even when they appear to be dead. The inclusion of a person with Down syndrome was fundamental for the work, as according to some theories, the perception of the passage of time by people suffering from this pathology is different.
In the meantime, the provocations of Gino de Dominicis continue abundant, two examples are the party organized to celebrate the overcoming of the second law of thermodynamics or the opening of an exhibition whose access is restricted to animals only.
Subsequently, since the early 1980s and until his death at the age of 51, instead he has a return to painting to which he dedicates himself almost exclusively, through tempera and pencil, and rarely the use of oil and enamel on canvas. Despite this, the work Calamita Cosmica saw the light only in 1990, exhibited in one of his anthological exhibitions in Grenoble.
In his artistic life has embraced various artistic mediums, from painting to architecture passing through sculpture and also approaching philosophy. Although he was a protagonist of the second post-war period, he never wanted to approach the artistic currents that have characterized these years, such as the neo-avant-gardes, poor art, trans-avant-garde or conceptual arts. Gino de Dominicis was a great provocateurwho has repeatedly harshly criticized the artistic circuits in which, inevitably, he found himself working.
For these reasons, little is documented on his public appearances, which were sipped so as not to ‘meddle’ in the world of contemporary art. Documentation on his works is also scarce: Gino de Dominicis did not believe in the documentary value of photography and on several occasions he opposed the publication of catalogs concerning his exhibitions and his life.
De Dominicis’ death is also shrouded in mystery: it seems in fact that, although he loved to surround himself with people, he returned home and chased everyone away to be alone. In those moments he destroyed his entire archive and dressed himself in a tuxedo before going to bed where, the next morning, he was found dead.
The Cosmic Magnet Work
As soon as you enter the central body of the former church of the Santissima Trinità in Annunziata, we can only be impressed by the generous dimensions of Cosmic magnet.
Cosmic Magnet is one of the most important examples of Italian sculpture of the twentieth century and its history is fascinating: it was created in great secrecy by Gino de Dominicis in 1988 and was exhibited for the first time only two years later.
The Cosmic Magnet is the sculpture of a gigantic human skeleton lying on itself, which occupies a length of about 24 meters and a width of nine. Its height is instead of about four meters and is reached thanks to the long aquiline nose that characterizes the physiognomy of the skull. The long nose in the shape of a bird is one of the distinctive elements of the works of Gino de Dominicis. The dimensions of the work combined with its deformed nose are part of the author’s poetics, who intends to provoke a sense of inferiority and smallness of the human being in the face of something clearly superhuman and consequently inaccessible. A simple skeleton is in fact transformed into a monster of monumental size.
Turning around the long white skeleton you will notice a single element of a different color: the long golden rod that starts from the phalanx of the middle finger of the right hand and rises towards the dome of the church. Just this element represents the Cosmic Magnet, a sort of magnet directed towards the universe and connecting the earth to the sky. The focus of the work lies precisely in this auction, which describes a link between man and the reality that surrounds him, in which the rod acts as a magnetic field that incorporates the skeleton itself, which is at the same time its creator and user.
Calamita Cosmica has toured several museums (and open spaces) both in Italy and in Europe, such as the vanvitellian mass in Ancona, Brussels, the MAXXI in Rome, the palace of Versailles near Paris, the palace of Capodimonte in Naples. and in Piazza Duomo in Milan e since 2011 it has been permanently exhibited right here in Foligno, in the Annunziata church.
The sculpture was made entirely by Gino de Dominicis, using fiberglass, iron and polystyrene. Despite its conceivable fragility, visitors to the permanent exhibition are allowed to walk around the work without any protection, trusting in the good sense of the spectators.
The visit to Cosmic Magnet is made particularly interesting by the possibility to see the work on different levels: the conformation of the church allows you to walk around it, but also to have a raised view of the entire skeleton by Gino de Dominicis thanks to the first floor accessible to visitors.
The Location: Former Church of the Holy Trinity in Annunziata di Foligno
– the church of the Holy Trinity in Annunziata di Foligno it was designed by the architect Carlo Murena in the second half of the 18th century and was consecrated in 1765. The neoclassical church took the place of a previous building of worship, the church of Santa Cecilia, and was put into use even before being finished.
The façade of the church testifies to the failure to complete the works. In fact, the project included a massive stucco decoration chosen by the Poor Clare nuns of the Annunziata convent attached to the church. The few funds available pushed the nuns not to wait for the work to be completed and to take possession of the church, postponing the completion of the work to better times, times that never came.
In 1860 the church of the Holy Trinity in Annunziata was orphaned by a religious order that administered it and so it was used as a military headquarters, bakery, granary, warehouse, barracks and garage for the cars of the State Police. That is did nothing but deteriorate the structure which, over the decades, suffered serious damage. These damages are evidenced by the fact that, to date, only the external walls of the church have been preserved, while all the interiors have been revised and renovated by the Umbria Region and the Cassa di Risparmio di Foligno Foundation who have created an exhibition hall. .
The former church of the Santissima Trinità in Annunziata, together with the Italian Contemporary Art Center in via del Campanile, makes up an important museum complex in the city of Foligno.
