The installation by Sergei Tchoban and his colleagues entitled “The DNA of the City” was placed this time not in the main courtyard of the university, as in the previous five years, but in the side “courtyard of seven hundred”: Cortile dei 700. But it occupied it entirely, sensitively reacting to the architecture arcades and at the same time reviving the silence of the peristyle with the disco colors of media screens. It is an equilateral cross made up of thin plates; everything that is not occupied by the luminous screens is given over to mirrors: from the side of the main entrance, the viewer sees a somewhat distorted, "jumping" reflection of the arcades. What is a little disorienting at first - the courtyard is not the same, only the lines of the columns have "moved" a little, however, not everyone will immediately notice this. On the other hand, the viewer will see his own reflection, placement in the space of the courtyard between ordinary and reflected reality. This is a transition, a preamble.
From the side of the second entrance, a perspective opens, in which one half of the cross - a media screen, is reflected in the second - a mirror one, and the illusion of a luminous picture suspended in perspective appears.
In order to see all the screens, that is, the main content of the installation, you need to go around the courtyard and show interest. All of them are bright, aniline, argue with the sun, in a word, they are as it should be. Thanks to the mirrored frames, the screens seem to hang in the air. And they broadcast images of the city, from general plans to silhouettes, interpreted in a somewhat pop-artistic, ornamental way, so that each picture becomes a bright carpet, but at the same time carries meaning. The city plans are real, but the silhouettes are schematic: they show the "layers" of the city from low buildings to skyscrapers. The latter occupy the entire distant plan - so far this does not happen in nature, except that in Singapore or Hong Kong you can now find something similar. Skyscrapers, lined up in a dense row, are a little shocking, occupying everything that is reserved for the sky. The neon city of skyscrapers, which we are shown on the screens, enters into some special relationship with the courtyard of Filarete and makes us think. Which, in fact, is the purpose of any decent installation.
The height of the structure is about the height of the lower colonnade and it works with the space of the courtyard architecturally (however, this is how all the last Milanese projects of Choban, Kuznetsov and Sterligova worked). In this case, the first level of the author's communication with the Renaissance space is speculative: the cross finds the center of the courtyard and divides it into four parts, which is built into the scheme of Filarete's plan, capturing its module for dividing the side courtyards into four parts by the method of central symmetry. The second level is ultra-modern: the light from the media screens colors the arcades, which is visible even during the day; at night, the courtyard is "lit" with a light show.
Thus, when we enter, we see the old arcades in the mirror, but not straight, but somewhat lopsided, which appeals to the theme of ruins, but at the same time retains the natural color of the old architecture. In the mirror, the arcade is not real, and even as if decomposed into elements is akin to a cubist one, but at the same time its color is correct. Around the mirror, the columns are real and straight, but illuminated with neon, illuminated with an unnatural color for themselves, that is, they are distorted, but in a different way.
That, given the name of the project, can be understood as a metaphor for the development of the city as such in general and the relationship of a modern city with a historical one in particular. Modernity illuminates, “lights up” the old city with its disco neon and at the same time something, it's hard to say what, is lost or at least transformed. Well, they say, apparently, the authors are for us - so maybe this is his DNA? Maybe this process is embedded in the genetics of the city? Who knows, maybe so.
Although the installation is very simple and made up of the simplest parts - and maybe that's why - it turned out to be the most ambitious and, probably, the most ambitious of all the previous works by the same authors. She claims to go beyond the scope of the exhibition object, not only in size, but also in expression. Which, it should be noted, is built into a series of reflections given in the drawings by Sergei Tchoban - the very ones where the towers grow into the body of a traditional city.
* Averlino Filarete - 15th century Italian architect who designed the Ca 'Granda building, which houses the University of Milan. The building underwent numerous reconstructions in the 16th century and later, but in general follows Filarete's design.
