The Cosmic Magnet

“The Cosmic Magnet, considered one of the most important testimonials of 20th century Italian sculpture, is one of the masterpieces by the artist Gino de Dominicis, protagonist of postwar contemporary art, an eccentric and enigmatic personality, himself an endless work of art, original and full of secret.”
***** My translation from the museum brochure, and wow, Italians do write LOOOOONG sentences! The brochure goes on to say,
“The work, created in absolute secrecy around 1988, is 24 meters long, 9 meters wide, almost 4 meters tall, faithfully reproduces a human skeleton with a long bird’s beak nose.”
*****Today’s blip features the skull of this humongous work of art. The brochure description continues,
“A golden rod that leaves from one of the fingers is the ‘Cosmic Magnet’ from which the work takes its name, a sort of magnet directed towards the universe.
“Since 2011, after important expositions in some of the main Italian and European museums, the ‘Cosmic Magnet’ is a permanent exhibit at the restored 17th century Church of the Holy Trinity (deconsecrated), a neoclassical architectural gem by the architect Carlo Murena.”
*****Imagine that, an entire church to house a single work of art. The extra shows the interior of the church and the entire ‘Cosmic Magnet’ - both skeleton and golden rod. The museum is dedicated completely to the “Cosmic Magnet” and the artist that created it. I find both somewhat interesting, and really not my thing. Gino de Dominicis was a very controversial and strange nocturnal creature. Where he lived and worked were completely unknown for 20 years. When his whereabouts were known, he was only seen about at night. De Dominicis’ art installation, ‘Second Solution of Immortality’ at the 1972 Venice Biennale caused a great uproar and was eventually closed down, and the artist was accused of exploitation of an incapable person. The installation was composed of 3 objects in a room (drawn square, a ball, and a rock) with a seated young man with Down syndrome watching over them. I don’t consider that art, but I do consider it appalling. Maybe causing that reaction IS the art? As I said, not my thing, but totally blippable.