Adrian Melis installs sound piece in ancient Roman aqueduct in Naples

Cuban artist Adrian Melis (Havana, 1985) has created a site-specific environmental installation inside the ancient Acquedotto Augusteo del Serino in Naples, on view until November 15. The work, titled 'Terra asciutta' (Dry Land), is the third commission of the cultural program Underneath the Arches, curated by Chiara Pirozzi and Alessandra Troncone. The project is realized in collaboration with the Associazione VerginiSanità, with support from Fondazione Morra and the MANN – Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. During a residency in the Rione Sanità neighborhood—a symbol of a difficult periphery now undergoing cultural revival—Melis developed a production chain aimed at reactivating the flow of what is no longer there: water. He employed Foley art, a cinema technique that reproduces specific sounds using various objects, activated by local residents. The curators explain that Melis's intervention reflects on the concept of ruin, establishing a link between the visible remains of the archaeological site and the difficulties of the present. The Roman-era infrastructure, one of the most imposing of the ancient world with a development of about 100 km, became the stage for a participatory performative action later translated into an installation now visible in the underground spaces.