Nivola & New York
audiovisual suite and videomapping

About this project
Nivola’s relationship with New York—the “incredible” and “marvelous” city that welcomed him in 1939 after fleeing Italy—deeply influenced his work as an artist. Exciting, immersive, and at the same time unsettling, New York’s urban landscape becomes a metaphor for the human condition in modernity and postmodernity.
At the heart of the exhibition is Nivola’s relief for the Olivetti showroom on Fifth Avenue, created by the BBPR studio in 1954. It stands as a landmark of postwar Italian art and architecture, and a symbol of a new approach to corporate communication. For the exhibition, a full-scale 1:1 reconstruction was created using visual computing and 3D printing technologies. Covering 101 square meters, it is one of the largest projects of three-dimensional reproduction of cultural heritage using robotic milling ever undertaken.
Tokonoma has created an audiovisual suite using video mapping—a poetic, abstract narrative that interacts with the materiality and geometric inventions of Nivola’s work, evoking the chaotic, exhilarating nature of 1950s New York and its fast-paced rhythm of jazz.
Credits
Curated by
Giuliana Altea, Antonella Camarda, Luca Cheri, Carl Stein
In collaboration with
Roger Broome e Steven Hillyer
Audiovisual suite and videomapping
Tokonoma
Motion graphics & 3D animation
Mauro Macella, Francesco Deiana, Michele Pusceddu
Original soundtrack
Max Viale
Technologies
Vi.Ma
Exhibition design
2F Architettura
Setting up
Artigianato & Design, Luca Pinna
Graphics
Gianfranco Setzu
Photogrammetry
Visualization Research and Teaching Laboratory, University of Harvard (Rus Gant), Recap Robotics, LLC.
Research in Visual Computing and Digital Modeling Relief Olivetti
Visual and Data-intensive Computing, CRS4, Cagliari (Enrico Gobbetti, Fabio Bettio, Fabio Marton) - Visual Computing Laboratory ISTI – CNR, Pisa (Paolo Cignoni, Marco Callieri)
Digital modeling cavallini
Stephen Wise, Monica Casu
Cavallini fabrication
Make in Nuoro (Alessandro Lutzu, Paolo Ledda. Giuseppe Mignemi)
Institutional sponsors
Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, Comune di Orani
Main sponsor
Fondazione di Sardegna And with the support of Banco di Sardegna
Partners
CRS4 – Centro di Ricerca, Sviluppo e Studi Superiori in Sardegna, ISTI – CNR – Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologie dell’Informazione “Alessandro Faedo”, Pisa, Associazione Archivio Storico Olivetti, Ivrea, Fondazione Olivetti, Roma, Harvard University, Harvard, Università degli studi di Sassari, The Cooper Union, New York, Make in Nuoro – Camera di Commercio di Nuoro, Monadnock Development