Giovanni Albanese's Automata at Fondazione Volume! in Rome

Fondazione Volume! in Rome presents an exhibition of works by Giovanni Albanese (b. 1955, Bari). The gallery space, a former workshop in Trastevere, is filled with Albanese's rough steel machines and found materials. The first room features a workbench on wheels laden with tools and ideas. The automata, described as bar-like characters, reveal their weaknesses and emit a silent noise. Imperfections and signs of wear mark their bodies. There is no single narrative but a confused, corroded chatter of survival calls. The exhibition reflects on the energy and vitality of scientific discoveries, now expanded, and the regularity of mechanisms that appear secure but outdated. Future automata will be less cumbersome and more effective. In this cemetery of still-living anthropomorphic relics, what is displayed is dead movement and pseudo-life.