Massimiliano Cestari

OrphanAgeOT301 Cultural Centre Sequenced

MiniKunstFestival 20144bid Gallery,Amsterdam

About the work

I'm interested in architecture as an articulation of language in space and as

convergence of practical concerns, cultural values and relationship with the

environment. When dealing with dystopian issues, architecture can be adressed as a

source of inspiration. OrphanAge-OT301 Cultural Centre Sequenced is my attempt to

reset and re-articulate the building of the OT301 Cultural Centre, in a new language

and notation, to mimic the deconstrucion of culture peculiar to dystopian scenarios.

I decided to engage directly the venue of the exhibition to embody the theme of the

festival. From Googlemaps, I downloaded a picture of the OT301 Cultural Centre (the

exhibition venue of MiniKunstFestival 2014, whose main theme is “Dystopia”) and I

manually traced it using Photoshop. Then, I exported each trace on separate pages.

In this way, each sign that composes the global picture of the OT301 Centre is

isolated on a di0erent page. The OT301 Cultural Centre building is sequenced in a

publishing format, breaking down itself to essential particles.

OrphanAge-OT301 Cultural Centre Sequenced wants to re3ect on dystopia (“imaginary

bad place”) as a disarticulation of reference points, both in terms of space and

language. To be prepared for the future we 4rst have to question our own time, our

way of dwelling the current culture, the structure of language itself and, potentially,

4nd new ways of notation to preserve our communication faculties.

In the Intro section, you can 4nd some materials and studies I used in the making of

this publication.

Massimiliano Cestari, 2014

Suggested Readings:

Martin Heidegger, “Building, Dwelling, Thinking” in Martin Heidegger, Building,

Dwelling, Thinking, New York, Harper & Row, 1971.

Christian Norberg Schultz, Genius Loci, Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture,

Rizzoli, New York, 1980.

About the author

Massimiliano Cestari (Trento, 1985) lives and works in Milan, Italy. He attended the

Undergraduate Course of Contemporary Arts at the Faculty of Arts, Music and

Performing Arts in Bologna; the SAE Milan (School of Audio Engineering) Institute;

the Multimedia Interactive and Performative Arts Graduate Course at Brera Fine Arts

Academy in Milan. Since 2005, Massimiliano has been active in the new media 4eld.

With a particular attention to sound and interactivity and through collaborations

with artists with di0erent backgrounds and skills, he works at the intersection of live

media, interactive installations, sound design and video design. His work has been

shown to (selection) Homework Festival, Teatro Manzoni, Artsinergy Gallery e

Contemporary Concept Gallery, Bologna; LPM Festival Rome/Minsk, Castel

Sant'Angelo, Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome; Corposamente Drome Festival,

Ravenna, Celeste Prize, Berlin/MIlan, mc2 Gallery, Milan.

http://www.massimilianocestari.com/