Rilevare un’opera cinetico - programmata per gestire le sue trasformazioni

The present contribution addresses the challenges raised by loaning, maintaining and restoring Ambiente - Strutturazione a parametri virtuali, by Gabriele Devecchi. The immersive, kinetic and programmed environment, permanently showcased at Museo del ‘900 in Milan, consists of a blank trapezoidal box in which users are invited to enter and experiment the continuous variation of spatial references, drawn by moving lights hidden behind the side walls. A kinetic-programmed artwork is by its very nature a structure in variation. Therefore it needs strategies for managing its change’s path, be it of the conservation status or of the context in which it is exhibited. It's worth to investigate the way in which the environment functions, its mechanisms and the relation established with user and context. Hence, the contribution focusses on the environment’s structure, the relationships with the museum context and the management of its change when asked for loaning. As a kinetic-programmed environment, Ambiente - Strutturazione a parametri virtuali is made up of several parts – functional and aesthetic – that, when in the need for a re-location, may change according to the spatial context, indeed with due regard for the final effect pursued by the author. In this respect, one issue is defining uniquely which of the parts the work’s identity consists of; another, is understanding how they should be mantained, restored, replaced or even reproduced and who’s to guarantee the correct operation if it needs to be “moved”. Out of these premises comes the need to document the kinetic mechanism connected to the lights, and to describe how the environment works, with the aim of designing guidelines in support of the stakeholders involved in managing its conservation and potential re-location, for instance in case of loaning. A standard workflow in approaching the task of elaborating a complete dossier about the artwork starts with planning the survey and measuring of its parts. The contribution is intended to be a preparatory reflection for an informed management of such particular cases, in which issues about the proper definition of the work’s identity wave into the challenges posed by its use and the correct conservation plan.