The Magic Mountain (La Montagna Magica)
by Micol Roubini
Project supported by the Italian Council (2022), Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity, Italian Ministry of Culture
The Magic Mountainby Micol Roubini is among the winning projects of the 11th edition of the Italian Council. Through a video-installative work, the Milanese artist investigates the ecosystem of Europe’s largest asbestos quarry in Balangero (TO).
Active between 1918 and 1990, the Balangero asbestos mine is today at the centre of an extensive decontamination project. It presents itself as a suspended territory where the still legible signs of the intense mining activity that lasted over eighty years coexist with the traces of a progressive wilderness and the reappearance, both natural and induced, of various plant and animal species.
The Magic Mountain analyses the dense network of relations between man and land, a proper ecosystem extending from the quarry to the small towns on its slopes. The work brings together the oneiric imagination of those who now live near the former quarry, the process of colonisation of the contaminated land by plants and lichens, and the fascinations at the origin of the history of the use of asbestos, a mineral that has been considered magical since ancient times due to its extraordinary fireproof properties.
The delicate transition phase that is currently underway contrasts a recent past marked by some of the darkest events in Italian industrial history and a future reconversion whose function is still to be defined, between hypotheses of a mining theme park, leisure areas, or photovoltaic fields.
The Magic Mountain will become part of the collection of the MAN in Nuoro and will be presented at the Talbot Rice Gallery of Edinburgh in the exhibition The Recent curated by Tessa Giblin, dedicated to climate change caused by human activity.
Curated by Gabi Scardi, the project brings together as cultural partners: Talbot Rice Gallery, PAV Parco Arte Vivente, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art MMSU Rijeka, Fundación Cerezales Antonino y Cinia.
A publication edited by NERO Editions will support the project.
The Magic Mountainby Micol Roubini is among the winning projects of the 11th edition of the Italian Council. Through a video-installative work, the Milanese artist investigates the ecosystem of Europe’s largest asbestos quarry in Balangero (TO).
Active between 1918 and 1990, the Balangero asbestos mine is today at the centre of an extensive decontamination project. It presents itself as a suspended territory where the still legible signs of the intense mining activity that lasted over eighty years coexist with the traces of a progressive wilderness and the reappearance, both natural and induced, of various plant and animal species.
The Magic Mountain analyses the dense network of relations between man and land, a proper ecosystem extending from the quarry to the small towns on its slopes. The work brings together the oneiric imagination of those who now live near the former quarry, the process of colonisation of the contaminated land by plants and lichens, and the fascinations at the origin of the history of the use of asbestos, a mineral that has been considered magical since ancient times due to its extraordinary fireproof properties.
The delicate transition phase that is currently underway contrasts a recent past marked by some of the darkest events in Italian industrial history and a future reconversion whose function is still to be defined, between hypotheses of a mining theme park, leisure areas, or photovoltaic fields.
The Magic Mountain will become part of the collection of the MAN in Nuoro and will be presented at the Talbot Rice Gallery of Edinburgh in the exhibition The Recent curated by Tessa Giblin, dedicated to climate change caused by human activity.
Curated by Gabi Scardi, the project brings together as cultural partners: Talbot Rice Gallery, PAV Parco Arte Vivente, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art MMSU Rijeka, Fundación Cerezales Antonino y Cinia.
A publication edited by NERO Editions will support the project.
She was born in 1982 in Milan, where she lives and works. She is a graduate of the Brera Academy and the Univeristät der Künste in Berlin. Since 2021 she has been teaching New Languages of Visual Communication at CFP Bauer, Milan. Her research investigates the balance between man and territory, between cultural systems and landscape morphology, between history, migration and individual memories.
She has exhibited at Museo Casa Testori (2021), Premio Matteo Oliviero (2017), Hotel Charleroi (2013). She realised the project Atti clandestini per terre mobili (Fondazione Palazzo Magnani 2021). She participated in video exhibitions at Villa Medici (2021), Pavilion (Poznan 2021), LightCone (Parigi 2017), Scotland’s Centre for Photography (2012).
She has conducted masterclasses (Locarno Film Festival 2022) and participated in residencies including Fondazione Pistoletto (2017), Scottish Sculpture Workshop (2013).
Her film La strada per le montagne (2019), in competition at Cinéma du Réel and other European festivals, won the Corso Salani Prize at the Trieste Film Festival 2020.
She was born in 1982 in Milan, where she lives and works. She is a graduate of the Brera Academy and the Univeristät der Künste in Berlin. Since 2021 she has been teaching New Languages of Visual Communication at CFP Bauer, Milan. Her research investigates the balance between man and territory, between cultural systems and landscape morphology, between history, migration and individual memories.
She has exhibited at Museo Casa Testori (2021), Premio Matteo Oliviero (2017), Hotel Charleroi (2013). She realised the project Atti clandestini per terre mobili (Fondazione Palazzo Magnani 2021). She participated in video exhibitions at Villa Medici (2021), Pavilion (Poznan 2021), LightCone (Parigi 2017), Scotland’s Centre for Photography (2012).
She has conducted masterclasses (Locarno Film Festival 2022) and participated in residencies including Fondazione Pistoletto (2017), Scottish Sculpture Workshop (2013).
Her film La strada per le montagne (2019), in competition at Cinéma du Réel and other European festivals, won the Corso Salani Prize at the Trieste Film Festival 2020.
Project supported by the Italian Council (11th edition, 2022), the program aimed at supporting Italian contemporary art in the world promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity within the Italian Ministry of Culture
Proposing entity: Lo schermo dell’arte
Cultural partners: Talbot Rice Gallery, PAV Parco Arte Vivente, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art MMSU Rijeka, Fundación Cerezales Antonino y Cinia. The work will be acquired by the MAN_Museo d’arte della Provincia di Nuoro.
