In a junction of artist's book, illustrated sci-fi story, and a glossary of sculptural objects Ludovica Carbotta explores the concept of “fictional site-specificity” through different media, authorships, and descriptive strategies: a site-oriented practice that considers imaginary places, or real places within fictional contexts, to recover the role of imagination in the process of constructing knowledge.
The Shotgun, the Invisible Rail, and the Spectacled Tyrant is the final chapter of a long-term project starting with the exhibition A Motorway Is a Very Strong Wind (Milan, Careof, 2014), which revolved around the tradition of ekphrasis: the verbal description of a work of art, either real or imagined. In the first part of the book, the diverse descriptions, collected for and embodied in the setting of the exhibition, reappear again as words, rearranged by Carbotta into an entirely new story. It is only one of the many potential stories plucked from the hundreds of possibilities that the genre of science fiction presents. In its final pages, the book exhibits a glossary of objects from the series Apart, We Are Together (2015), stemming directly from the 2014 exhibition. These reproductions, drawings, and detailed descriptions written by philosopher Federico Campagna, archeologist Sandro Caranzano, and psychologist Marzia Spagnolo, are presented as if these objects were real, functioning relics.
Ludovica Carbotta (born 1982 in Torino, lives and works in London) is an Italian artist. Her practice focuses on the physical exploration of the urban space and on how individuals establish connections with the environment they inhabit. Hovering on the boundaries between reality and fiction, recent works combine installations, texts and performances reflecting around the notion of site, identity and participation.
