Beyond Space, Beyond Time. The Dream of Ulisse Aldrovandi is the exhibition by Fondazione Golinelli and Sistema Museale di Ateneo, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, curated by Andrea Zanotti, Roberto Balzani, Antonio Danieli and Luca Ciancabilla, which ran from 4 February to 28 May 2023.
The exhibition started a reflection on the figure of Ulisse Aldrovandi (1522-1605), one of the greatest natural scientists of his time. Thanks to his extraordinary ability to observe, catalogue and conserve the findings that nature has left behind, Aldrovandi is in fact the proponent of the modern Natural History Museum, a place of memory and knowledge in which the ancestral fund of our origins is sedimented, a source of inspiration for diverserighestudio‘s architectural design.
The exhibition project opened to the public in the Golinelli Arts and Sciences Centre in Bologna was transferred to the capital the following year, from Friday 22 March to Sunday 21 July 2024, at the Museo Civico di Zoologia in Rome. The exhibition was realised in collaboration with INAF – National Institute of Astrophysics, promoted by Roma Capitale, Assessorato alla Cultura – Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali, with the organisational support of Zètema Progetto Cultura.
The exhibition, in this second edition, presents an original and harmonious combination of artefacts and objects from the museum collections of the University of Bologna and those of the Civic Museums of the Capitoline Superintendency, immersive and interactive technical-scientific displays produced originally by the Golinelli Foundation, paintings from different periods by Bartolomeo Passarotti, Enrico Prampolini, Virginio Marchi and Mattia Moreni, and works of art – paintings, sculptures and installations – by Nicola Samorì. Also on display are objects, instruments, videos and images from the National Institute of Astrophysics and the European Space Agency.
Ulisse Aldrovandi embodies two souls: the scientist, observer of a reality that has already been, and the artist, who imagines and gives form to what will be, pushing himself, as science fiction will do centuries later, to unveil scenarios destined, as science progresses, to become reality.
The exhibition’s audience is taken into the future, into a setting that symbolises the possible condition of life in a human settlement outside of earth. In this section, visitors will experience, through interactive and immersive displays, some of the new conditions in which humanity will find itself living in the not too distant future. Two virtual reality stations allow visitors to explore two wunderkammer – chambers of wonders – one Aldrovandian as a window to the past, the other projected into the future.
