Curated by Ilaria Gianni

Monowe (the residence, the lodge, the shelter) , the first solo show in Rome by the artist Ludovica Carbotta , created in collaboration with the Orizzontale collective of architects, is a new chapter of the Monowe project, an imaginary city designed to be inhabited by a he single person, who dominates the existing urban agglomerations and manifests himself through various elements (architecture, infrastructures, institutions, documents, voices).

Halfway between ruin and construction site, Monowe aims to replicate the current urban lifestyle, solitary and individualistic, radicalizing it to the point of building an extreme condition for a single man. On the one hand, it responds to the growing fear of the other by offering an area of protection; on the other, it reflects on the model of the utopian city as a rethinking of the city space, going so far as to contradict its very identity: no longer a human settlement of many individuals but a place of and for a single person.

The exhibition presents the home of its only inhabitant, who in an interview with himself reveals: << I have not yet decided what to call myself. I am the citizen of Monowe, the only one. I was not born here but this is where I come from >>. << Monowe is the place where I live. To be precise, it is the place where I live, only with myself. It is located in a parallel dimension. It is not easy to find, but if you want you can look for it >> << […] I live in Monowe, I exist and I am complete "in her" >>.

On the occasion of Monowe (the residence, the lodge, the shelter), the spaces of the Foundation take the form of a house, or rather two houses. One grafted onto the other, they disturb each other, creating a spatial short circuit, where two times and spaces overlap. Real walls and scenographies intersect, leaving visible a perimeter within which we find a chair, a table, a bed, a wardrobe, some object and window-screens that modify the landscape. The house thus contributes to defining the self and the actions of the inhabitant of the imaginary city.

Monowe (the residence, the lodge, the shelter) is a reflection not only on the use of space, but on the meaning of living. Many definitions have been given of the house, starting with Gaston Bachelard in The Poetics of Space, who describes it as "our corner of the world, our first universe", a "shell" in which to repair and find oneself. But how is the most intimate space configured within a city where the only otherness is represented by the city itself? What is the role of residence in a city that corresponds to you in everything? The exhibition intends to redefine the function of the home, extending it beyond its physical limits, expanding its perimeter beyond the walls, questioning the very concept of dwelling.

Opening: Tuesday 12 February 2019 at 6:30 pm