SPACE Y – Back to the Moon art and futures beyond Earth's orbit
SPACE Y – Back to the Moon: art and futures beyond Earth's orbit
Filippo Riniolo’s performance with Corrado Formigli drew a large audience, moving between a critique of space imaginaries and a post-capitalist vision.
On 22 November, at La Nuvola in Rome, Filippo Riniolo’s performance SPACE Y, curated by Adriana Polveroni, was presented. A large audience followed the artist’s action and the “impossible interview” conducted by Corrado Formigli.
The event, part of the official Arte in Nuvola programme, set in motion a critical reflection on extractivist ideologies, technonarcissism and the possibility of decolonising our gaze towards outer space. A symbolic mission to “clean the Moon” and rescue imagination.
- Venue:
- La Nuvola, Rome – Arte in Nuvola
- Date:
- 22 November
- Artist:
- Filippo Riniolo
- Curated by:
- Adriana Polveroni
- Interviewer:
- Corrado Formigli
- Courtesy:
- Traffic Gallery
- Technical partners:
- SISEI (Seriana Institute for Space Exploration and Innovation), Mars Planet Technologies, Punto Azzurro
- Videomaker:
- Daniele Bracci
The performance
Wearing an original spacesuit, Filippo Riniolo entered the fair space carrying a folded United States flag. The scene was accompanied by a heterogeneous soundtrack that interwove radio signals, heightening the sense of suspension, composed especially for the occasion. He then took his place next to the journalist Corrado Formigli, host of Piazzapulita (La7), who was waiting for him on stage.
During the performance, Riniolo progressively took out and arranged in a circular configuration a series of symbolic objects described as “lunar finds”, gathered — in the staged fiction — during an imaginary mission to the Moon. Among them: a folded American flag, an LRRR (Laser Ranging Retro Reflector), visors, metal containers, plastic tools and metal boxes. Each object was placed at the centre of the scene, while archival videos of the lunar mission, reworked with AI, played on the monitors.
A slow, almost ritual gesture, opening up space not as a site of conquest but as an archive of ideologies, imaginaries and residues. Lasting around 30 minutes, the performance made an alternative vision of the space race tangible, carving out a poetic and political space.
The impossible interview
Journalist and TV host Corrado Formigli (Piazzapulita, La7) led a public interview with the artist, in the form of an “impossible interview”. The exchange allowed the central themes of the action to be unpacked analytically: the militarisation of outer space, the growing accumulation of orbital debris (space debris), the ethics of space missions and the hegemony of technocratic narratives.
At the heart of the dialogue was also the title of the performance: Space Y positions itself as a critical and feminist counterpoint to SpaceX, without ideological simplifications or personal attacks, questioning instead the underlying desire for domination embedded in the space race.
The urgency to “decolonise the gaze” emerged clearly, along with the need to rethink the relationship between humans, technology and planets, freeing outer space from the rhetoric of conquest. The conversation with the audience, which also lasted around 30 minutes, revealed the strong interest and active participation of cultural workers, artists and citizens.
The dialogue brought back to the fore the humanistic significance of the sky: its millenary meanings, the place where we have located all our deities, our ancestors, our symbols. A densely inhabited space, not by aliens but by symbols and signifiers.
The performance was realised and technologically supported by Traffic Gallery, SISEI (Seriana Institute for Space Exploration and Innovation), Mars Planet Technologies, Punto Azzurro.
Vision and context
The performance was curated by Adriana Polveroni, artistic director of Arte in Nuvola, who chose to place Riniolo’s action at the centre of a fair increasingly attentive to the dialogue between contemporary art and social transformations.
Credits and partners
- Artist / concept: Filippo Riniolo
- Curated by: Adriana Polveroni
- Interviewer: Corrado Formigli
- Production: Arte in Nuvola
- Technology partners: Traffic Gallery, SISEI (Seriana Institute for Space Exploration and Innovation), Mars Planet Technologies, Punto Azzurro
- Soundtrack: space sounds and archival audio materials (Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson, NASA)
