2012, 2004

Video Animation, 14min

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In 2012, I created a fake based on these convictions. The original artwork was created in 2004, and was conceived by using UFO documentaries focusing on people who were “contacted” or “abducted”. The events that take place in 2012 are being narrated from the vantage point of a later date. In a certain sense, it is not a fake documentary, as it cites the theories and ideas that have actually been circulated on various websites. Drawing from Mayan eschatology, 2012 was thought to be the harbinger of apocalypse or at least a major turning point for the future of the human race. The date is drawn from the Mayan calendar, since its cyclical system drew to a close in 2012. According to online conspiracy theorists, 2012 would have brought official recognition of the existence of aliens. I took these curious theories and added information gathered from other, more reliable sources. For example, at one point in the documentary the person being interviewed describes what happened to him one night when he fainted at the sight of a luminous sphere that appeared in the woods. He claims he cannot remember anything from that moment forward until, many hours later, he woke up and found himself in a different place. This episode was recounted by Kary Mullis, Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1993, in his book Dancing Naked in the Mind Field (2000). He claims that during those hours of unconsciousness he was kidnapped by aliens. The theory of synchronic lines is instead portrayed in the following video. Such energy flows are laid out in a grid pattern across our planet, and connect us with the rest of the universe. Our ancient ancestors were familiar with this grid of flows, and built sacred structures near them. In recent times, in Italy’s Piedmont region a new community was founded at the point where several of these lines converge.
This community, known as the Federation of Damanhur, has roughly 1,000 members. They erected a temple to celebrate their belief that humans can benefit from the energy flows of geomancy and thereby come in contact with superior spheres of reality that can provide superior knowledge and enlightenment. The lines work as a sort of natural network, through which it is possible to send and receive information between beings that are located in line with the same flows across space. The Oriental version of this view of the universe is Feng Shui, the Chinese worldview, according to which it is important to organize a living space in harmony with cosmic flows. Ufologists believe that galactic pathways allow extraterrestrials to conduct interstellar voyages that are not bound by traditional space-time constraints. String theory provides similar ideas. For instance, the Einstein- Rosen wormhole is interpreted as a shortcut to go from one point in the universe to another, one that would make it possible to travel through the universe at a velocity faster than the speed of light. This is an excellent way to open one’s mind to what the new frontiers of science are revealing: the discovery of new dimensions will overturn human perception and our established notion of reality. Thus, I created an iconographic account framed by an investigation into contemporary architecture so as to present a taxonomy of built structures from all over the world that share the characteristic of being aesthetically connected with futuristic and sci-fi- inspired imaginaries.
These architectures reprise aerodynamic and streamlined shapes in an attempt to liberate art buildings from the forces of gravity. I turned some of the world’s major museums into spaceships that can save the human race from the uchronic catastrophe of 2012. It is an updated version of the myth of Noah’s Ark. Daring architectures become the vessels for the salvation of humankind.

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