Curated by Alessandro Rabottini and Leonardo Bigazzi
All works commissioned and produced by Fondazione In Between Art Film
Project manager Alessia Carlino
Texts and public program curated by Bianca Stoppani
Assistant curator Giovanni Giacomo Paolin
Exhibition office Chiara Nicolini

Set design by 2050+ (Sara Barbini, Che Delano Facchin, Nils Grootenzerink, Francesca Lantieri, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli)
Exhibition set-up by Altofragile (Lapo Gavioli, Valentina Goretti, Giulia Mainetti, Alessia Pasqualetti, Francesco Rovaldi)
Design by Lorenzo Mason Studio (Lorenzo Mason, Michele Bellinaso, Simone Spinazzè)

Nebula (Latin for “cloud” or “fog”) is the second chapter in a series of exhibitions that explore the current state of moving images in the field of contemporary art, while also probing the unstable borderline between seeing and understanding, between what we perceive and what we believe. The exhibition deploys the image of fog as a metaphor for myriad different forms of disorientation, as a phenomenon that shifts from being atmospheric to become inner and collective—a mist that pervades not only the visual field but an entire epoch. At the heart of Nebula lies the desire to conduct a poetic investigation into a paradox: can a partial or obfuscated vision generate new meanings? Can uncertainty open up new spaces of mutual understanding?

In the wake of the experience of Penumbra in 2022, Nebula brings together eight site-specific video installations commissioned and produced by Fondazione In Between Art Film, all suffused with the formal and narrative evocations inherent in the phenomenon of fog. Despite its impalpable essence, fog conditions our movements to such an extent that we are almost paralyzed, distorting our perception of distance and forcing us to sharpen other senses in order to get our bearings.

The works touch upon a range of themes: the vastness of the landscape as the site of either loss or salvation; the architecture of memory, and the labyrinth of consciousness; music and voice as conduits of reclamation. They explore further forms of fragmentation: the reverberation of History within individual lives; the tension between being and disappearing, and between living together and estrangement; and the impact of economic and political forces on the environment and on people’s lives.

As well as providing the spatial context that the artworks inhabit, the Complesso dell’Ospedaletto is also the symbolic sounding board for the stories they tell. The exhibition layout is punctuated by the architectural interventions created by the interdisciplinary studio 2050+, with passages that manifest the concept of nebulosity through materials and surfaces that absorb or amplify sound and light. The entire Complesso dell’Ospedaletto is turned into a form of sensory architecture, a porous and tactile space in which stories, images and voices extend beyond the confining dimensions of the rooms. The works expand the notions of film and video, taking on sculptural forms, using sound and light to redefine space, calling into question the frontality and centrality of the screen and thematically leveraging the position of the viewer. Through a reflection on how time-based media fill the exhibition space, augmenting both its perception and meanings, Nebula poses a question concerning the very act of seeing: Does it make us witnesses to reality or participants in a mirage?