The six formalizations of Martellata_14.09.91 will compose an essayistic exhibition. They will be the following:

1. A Computerised Act of Vandalism
A robot-mill (a robotic arm) will carve out (and reproduce) the seven fragments detached from the toe; out of a copy of David‘s foot previously sculpted in marble. This will be made by TorArt and it will happen in Carrara, in the Fantiscritti quarry, the area of origin of the David’s marble block. TorArt is the only workshop that has currently made a 1:1 copy of the David as well as a reproduction of the bombarded Palmyra Triumphal Arch.

The automatised carving will be understood as a performance; and it will be documented by three cameras (two CANON 5D Mark II and a high-definition micro-camera that will be attached to the robotic arm).

This experimentation aims to approach the iconoclastic gesture and “to recover” the fragments that were subsequently attached to the sculpture. It also addresses other issues such as the application of new technologies in the processing of marble and the reconstruction of a collective memory.

3D visualization of the computerized carving process

The final result of A Computerised Act of Vandalism will be seven sculpted fragments and a video of the robotic milling. Contrary to what happened with the dust released from the David after the hammering, the powder resulting from the activity of the diamond-core drill will be collected for the output Re-re-copy.

In the exhibition, the video documentation will be projected on a screen about 3m long. On the ground, a Fantiscritti marble base will support the seven robotically sculpted fragments. Under these and between an antireflection glass and the marble, a photographic detail of the comparative crystallographic study will show the location of extraction of the David‘s marble block.

General view of A Computerised Act of Vandalism

A Computerised Act of Vandalism. Top view of the seven sculpted fragments, resting on the composed base

A Computerised Act of Vandalism. Side view of the seven sculpted fragments, resting on the composed base

2. Re-re-copy
Part of the marble powder collected during the computerised carving will be used for making a reproduction of the reproduction of the broken toe. The reference will be one “original plaster copy” that Luigi Davitti -technician of the Gipsoteca dell’Istituto d’Arte di Firenze -made after the iconoclast act. The plaster copies were used by different restaurateurs in 1991 and in 2003 for the study of the relocation of the pieces detached from the sculpture.

For Re-re-copy I will require the punctual collaboration of Luigi Davitti, the Opificio delle Petre Dure e Laboratori di Restauro (OPD), the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche in Florence (CNR-Firenze), and producers Radio Papesse.

Plaster reproduction of the fractured toe. Photograph taken at the studio of the restorer Cinzia Parnigoni, July 2018

Image of various gluing tests. Photographic archive of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure e Laboratori di Restauro. File n. 10579

In order to agglutinate the marble powder in the form of the fragmented toe, I will apply Akeogard Co (Syremont) and Primal AC 33. These are the adhesive components that Annamaria Giusiti and Roberto Nesti (Restorers from the Opificio delle Petre Dure e Laboratori di Restauro) used to reconstruct the toe in October 1991.

The intention of this experimentation is to recreate the processes of cast, copy, study and reconstruction of the damaged toe from the reverse. By applying the restorer’s adhesive material to the marble powder, there is the aim of approaching the possibilities of the glue, while at the same, of learning about the different shapes and alterations of the rock

In the gallery, Re-re-copy will be presented as follows:
A flat screen mounted on a strut will show the petrographic study of the thin section of the fragment F17G; as an illuminated still photo, simulating the result of the microscopic analysis on the monitor of the CNR-Firenze laboratory.

The agglutinated marble dust reproducing the broken toe will rest on a base of a polished marble. This will come from Fantiscritti and will have many taròli[1]. On its top, and under the reproduction of the reproduction of the broken toe, there will lay a close-up photograph of the breakage. This document was found at the ‘Fascicoli dei relievi tecnici. Gabinetto di Polizia Scientifica of 14.09.1991′, which is classified in the file 12190/91 of the GIP section of the Superior Court of Florence.

Top view of A Re-re-copy, the reproduction of the reproduction of the broken toe on the composed base

Side view of  A Re-re-copy, the reproduction of the reproduction of the broken toe on the composed base

3. Gaps
As the article ‘David’ di Michelangelo. Un restauro in punta di piedi states[2]: “for the reconstruction of the broken toe, several voids had to be filled using a good amount of mortar. The internal pieces of the sculpture that were used for chemical and crystallographic studies had to be replaced, but also the gaps of matter left by the dust that could never be collected. Marble powder was mixed with the adhesive agents Akeogard Co (Syremont) and Primal AC 33 to make mortar.”

Technical drawing of the fractured toe, along with its collected fragments and the lost matter after the attack. Document added at the article ‘David’ di Michelangelo. Un restauro in punta di piedi, which original was consulted at the photographic archive of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure e Laboratori di Restauro  File n. 10579

Using the same mould for Re-re-copy, and employing the fragments sculpted in A Computerized act of vandalism, I will make a volumetric calculation of the amount of matter that had to be added for the reconstruction of the toe. Such amount will be deposited in the form of marble powder on one of the plates of a laboratory scale. This arrangement will display the weight of “the voids”.

This experimentation approaches aspects like the loss of matter and the access to sedimented information, the mimetic restoration and the replacement of a noble material, the chronological lags when making a reconstruction.

Gaps will be a laboratory scale-vitrine fixed on the wall. The calculated powder will rest on one of its plates.

Side view of Gaps, one laboratory scale with marble powder

Top view of Gaps, one laboratory scale with marble powder 

4. Clouds of Marble Dust
I verified with Dr. Oriol Oms of the Sedimentology Unit of the Faculty of Geology of the University Autònoma de Bellaterra, that the “lost matter” of David‘s toe was not only in the form of marble dust, but also of particles that were fired into the air. Depending on their µm, they could have been suspended in the room of the Galleria dell’Accademia, forming one or more clouds, invisible to the human eye.

Interested in the nature of the grains of marble powder, and in order to understand how small the micro-grains could be, I carried out a granulometry -a grain classification- of a sample of soil from Fantiscritti. Furthermore, during the visit to the Michelangelo quarry in Carrara, I threw sand into the air to form a cloud of micro-grains of marble. That was a symbolic gesture to “inaugurate” a period of collaboration with the researcher Katja Bohm and Dr. Anu Kaakinen of the Air Erosion Unit of the Faculty of Geology of the University of Helsinki.

Clouds of Marble Dust. Photography taken while throwing marble dust to form a cloud. In Michelangelo quarry, Carrara, in July 2018

Clouds of Marble Dust inquiries about the matter that escapes our sensory systems. It approaches non-human objects and events to challenge the assumption that form is external to matter, to representation. At the same time, there is an interest in the impossibility of accessing something like dust: the only way to study it is when it is mediated, through the a priori- assumed categories of temporality and spatiality.

In the exhibition, Clouds of Marble Dust is presented as follows:
A column of sieves of different thicknesses form a column for a grain size classification. However, it rests on the floor; seated by two laboratory glass rods. On the adjoining wall, and symmetrically to the sieve column, a photograph shows the ephemeral cloud formed with earth from Michelangelo’s quarry. This picture will be replaced at the end of the show by a new cloud generated with micro-particles of marble dust that I will form (and document) using the technology of the Laboratory of the Air Erosion Unit of the University of Helsinki.

General view of Clouds of Marble Dust

Clouds of Marble Dust. A column of sieves rests on the floor; seated by two laboratory glass rods

5. Materiality Filters in Multiple Directions
According to Jussi Parikka’s article “The new materiality of dust”[3] every particle of dust carries with it a unique vision of matter: movement, collectivity, interaction, scattering… dust and particles smaller than clays and silt participate of an intensive differentiation that demands that cultural studies approach materialism with a new vocabulary, abandoning representation and deconstruction.

This experimentation addresses the speculative nature of the world to display that non-human objects and events speculate even before we enter the scene. If focuses on the phenomena of collectivity, movement, non-human agency and new materialisms.

Materiality filters in multiple directions will consist of 190,000 laboratory glass spheres of 2mm diameter. These will be deposited on the ground so that they will move around the room with the steps of the visitors but also according to their own agency and conformation, forming temporary clusters.

Detail of Materiality filters in multiple directions next to A Re-re-copy

Detail of Materiality filters in multiple directions next to A Re-re-copy

6. A Photographic Series
The entire work process of Martellata_14.09.91 will be documented using an analogue photo-camera loaded with a film, which 50 ISO will produce a granular (and stony) effect. As a mechanism of reflection on the intentions of the project, an exhaustive selection of only 10 images will form the photographic series; which will be later used for an exposition at the Research Catalogue.

Still from the film ‘Hiroshima Mon Amour’ by Alain Resnais, 1959. The texture applied on the opening of the movie is an eesthetic reference for A Photographic Series

The intention of A Photographic Series is to discuss the final selection of the photographs with Piero Cannata; as his legal tutor affirms that it is possible to collaborate with him. It is almost certain that such collaboration will also mean listening for a long time his new Italian grammar[4], but the main aim is to generate a method of applied participation. The objective is to include Cannata’s aesthetic criterion in the final output of the project, while engaging him in a conversation about his iconoclast act that will review it through the images instead of asking him directly.

The display of the series will be determined by the typology and content of the photographs, but in the budget it is assumed that the selection will be of a maximum of 10 photographs and that they will be framed.
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[1] The taròli are small cavities of approximately one millimeter in size that are distributed irregularly throughout the David‘s marble surface. The local stonecutters call them “taròli” and “tarme” in their own dialect.

[2] “‘David’ di Michelangelo. Un restauro in punta di piedi” de Annamaria Giusti y Roberto Nesti fue publicado en OPD Restauro. Rivista dell’Opificio delle Pietre Dure e Laboratori di Restauro di Firenze, nº 4, 1992. The translation is mine.

[3] Parikka, J. (2012). New materialism of dust. 12. 83-88. 10.7238/artnodes.v0i12.1716.

[4] Cannata has been creating an Italian Grammar since years. A copy of such particular project was found at the Penal Archive of the Superior Court of Florence, at the file number 1230/09. But every time we have met, we have discussed about Art. Therefore, a conversation about what photographs to include in the final series will be very fruitful in terms of engaging Cannata.