Alfredo Pirri installs 'Passi' at Palazzo Altemps with sound by Alvin Curran

Alfredo Pirri has installed his work 'Passi' at Palazzo Altemps in Rome, a site-specific intervention in the museum's southern loggia. The piece consists of a long, narrow corridor of shattered mirrors that visitors walk on, producing a crunching sound. Pirri collaborated with composer Alvin Curran, who created a sound installation for the opposite northern loggia, featuring a murmur of fragmented voices from the marble busts there. The two soundscapes interact across the central courtyard, which acts as a natural mixer. Pirri describes the work as creating a harmonious tension between weight and lightness, stone and air, history and oblivion. The installation aims to prepare visitors for the museum experience by 'cleaning the gaze' and placing perceptions within an infinite, broken space. A Roman statue from the Ludovisi collection serves as a focal point, turning its back on the courtyard. Pirri and Curran previously collaborated on a similar project at Museo Novecento in Florence in 2015, where 'Passi' was installed in a courtyard with a cross-shaped layout. The current installation runs along the museum's entrance staircase in the southern loggia, a long, narrow corridor overlooking the courtyard.