14.12.2021 – 14.01.2022

The walls of Piazza della Genga were turned into a universal sacred space in initial reference to the local lore of saintly protection and the holy mountain of Monteluco (Latin: lucus) – a wood sacred to Jupiter.

‘Sacred Grove’ takes the form of a sound composition of recordings from a sermon in the Basilica of Assisi and Convento San Francesco, as well as a broken music box shamisen and Tibetan tingsha bells used in prayers in rituals from the private collection of worldly instruments borrowed from La Mama Umbria International.

Affixing an abundance of paper talismans typical to Daoist practice, depicting spirits of the surrounding forest Bosco Sacro – such as the wild boar, trees and snakes who reside here – aims to invoke both the collective beliefs of the surrounding locality in tandem with the spirits who must reside in the instruments recorded, and the astrological deity from which the mountain takes its name.

Special thanks to Mahler Lewitt Studio Residency & Shedhalle

Image credits: Guy Robertson & courtesy of the artist