What does time look like?

The Public Program dedicated to the exhibition “XYZ” by Aki Sasamoto is conceived as a three-day program alternating some of the artist’s most iconic performances with a conversation between Sasamoto and Massimo Bernardi, paleontologist and Director of MUSE – Science Museum of Trento.

In her performances, Aki Sasamoto activates her sculptural installations through language and movement. Everyday objects — wardrobes, washing machines, glasses, drawers, bowls, clotheslines amongst many others — are transformed into elements through which the artist explores personal memories, relationships and emotional dynamics with irony, focusing on the more elusive and absurd aspects of human experience.

On Thursday, October 22 at 7.00 PM, the program opens with the performance Secrets of My Mother’s Child, a work rooted in the artist’s reflections on family ties, intimacy and the limits of mutual understanding, investigating how each person’s identity is shaped through the layering of memories over time. The evening continues at 8.00 PM with a conversation resulting from a collaboration between MUSE – Science Museum of Trento and Pirelli HangarBicocca: a dialogue between Aki Sasamoto and Massimo Bernardi, director of MUSE, focusing on themes such as the measurement of geological and human time, the way rocks and minerals embody a temporality that exceeds human perception, and the vitality of materials we usually perceive as inanimate. In recent years, Sasamoto’s practice has indeed focused on rocks and minerals, exploring their material and formal qualities and observing geological processes as a possible lens through which to reflect on human experience, memory, and the passage of time.

The program continues on Friday, October 23 at 6.00 PM with the performance Centrifugal March, in which the transformation of matter becomes a starting point for reflecting on death, memory, and what remains of a presence over time.

On Saturday, October 24, the schedule comprises three performances. At 11.00 AM, the artist presents the performance Strange Attractors, in which, drawing on mathematical models related to chaos theory, she explores the dynamics of emotional ties, and the forces of attraction and repulsion that shape them. The day continues at 4.00 PM with the performance Wrong Happy Hour, in which Sasamoto plays with the conventions of the neighborhood bar, turning a familiar place of social interaction into a shifting environment that explores the tensions between intimacy, individuality, and the expectations we bring to relationships. The last performance, Delicate Cycle, takes place at 7.00 PM: the action is centered on the ideas of repetition, transformation and the sedimentation of memory, as cyclical actions, gestures, and materials preserve traces of the past while continuing to change over time.

The Public Program, curated by Giovanna Amadasi, is a series of events exploring themes addressed in the exhibitions at Pirelli HangarBicocca and includes conversations, symposiums, lectures, and performance events.

 

Program

Thursday, October 22
7.00 PM | Secrets of My Mother’s Child
8.00 PM | Conversation between Aki Sasamoto and Massimo Bernardi

Friday, October 23
6.00 PM | Centrifugal March

Saturday, October 24
11.00 AM | Strange Attractors
4.00 PM | Wrong Happy Hour
7.00 PM | Delicate Cycle

Admission is free on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to availability. Please note that the performances Strange Attractors and Wrong Happy Hour have a very limited number of places due to space limitations.

Aki Sasamoto’s performances will be conducted in English.

To register for the conversation and performances, please visit the registration desk in the museum atrium 30 minutes before the start of each event.

Reservations are available exclusively to Membership Card holders, subject to availability, by clicking here. To validate your Member registration, please arrive at least 30 minutes before the start of each event.