Transmitter / Receiver

Can any visual poetry open a gateway to the unknown? Can a dimension that otherwise remains inaccessible to our senses be made tangible? And how can a sculpture make visible what is not visible and show various facets of the perceptible world? Starting from questions like these and as a way of exploring uncertainties in art and science, Marsèll presents the project Transmitter / Receiver by German artist Carsten Nicolai, who redefines the sense of chaos, light, and particles through a site-specific installation. Originally produced for Haus der Kunst, Munich, and presented again by Marsèll on the occasion of Milan’s 2023 Art Week, Transmitter / Receiver is a machine/sculpture controlled by a Geiger counter, a device that measures radioactivity. Installed on the roof of Marsèll Paradise, the counter detects terrestrial and extra-terrestrial small particles and sends corresponding electrical pulses to the machine, which accordingly translates them into sounds, light, and visual worlds for viewers to experience. In this way, the site-specific installation functions as a multi-sensory seismograph, investigating the visual and material properties of the universe.

Marsèll has deliberately chosen to collaborate with an artist whose sensitive research explores the interface between science and art and uses the aesthetic richness of the universe as a primary source of inspiration. Particularly relevant to Nicolai’s work is the exploration of chaos and chance, two key phenomena in the universe, sensitizing the perception of viewer and allowing them to witness an abstract and all-encompassing “cosmic language”. The synesthetic codes used by Nicolai in Transmitter / Receiver perfectly harmonise with the palette of the Spring Summer 23 collection, inspired by the beauty and random nature of light, as well as the delicate colours of the summer horizon. Through this collaboration with Nicolai, Marsèll reiterates that, even in strictly regulated and economically closed systems, art and culture can inspire thought and creativity in endless ways, whilst continuing its active support of creatives to honour freedom of expression in its most authentic form.