After La Chimera, it’s no surprise that the Tuscan filmmaker has become the talk of the town. Her latest work is a film that allows for mutual discovery: between archaeologist and artifact, director and viewer. Rohrwacher continues to explore that space of light which, both in nature and cinema, allows us to truly see things. She does the same with Bar Luna, an installation initially conceived for the Centre Pompidou, but later realized with the artistic duo Muta Imago in the underground of the historic Cinema Modernissimo in Bologna. It will be open to the public from June 18 to August 4, 2024.
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Living the sparkle
Alice Rohrwacher invites us into her magical world between dream and reality with Bar Luna
The journey begins in the kitchen, both the start of the exhibit and the heart of our everyday experiences. The setting is a likely representation of the kitchen from Rohrwacher’s memories in her home in Castel Giorgio. Here, the pantry reigns supreme—one of Alice’s favorite places—which invites us to first reflect on the concept of nourishment. The pantry is where the nourishment of the body and mind coexist, holding past, present, and future together. In line with these intertwined forms of nourishment, the installation features a TV, shelves, and cabinets filled with jars of preserves, photographs, memories, and sketches of what would later become films.
And then we arrive at Bar Luna, an old village bar, like many that existed in the 1980s. But Bar Luna is a diorama suspended within a system of stars and galaxies. Stepping into this timeless space, accompanied by Nada’s Amore Disperato, visitors can sit at plastic tables and embark on a journey that is both evocative and surreal. Here, you can rest, flip through Alice’s cine-album, browse postcards, or imagine making a call from the nearby coin-operated phone booth. It’s a bar in every sense, but one where you’re invited to stay without consuming anything.
There are moments when we wish to prolong a sensation. The suspension Alice offers is something difficult to let go of, which is why L’Aldilà was created. The final space in the exhibit allows you to linger, floating between sleep and wakefulness for as long as you wish. The setting includes a hammock for resting, while the soundscape is crafted from archival compositions of Le Meraviglie (2014), Rohrwacher’s second film. It’s a non-place where myth meets reality, where Orpheus meets Eurydice. Just as Arthur reunites with his lost love in La Chimera, we too, in the darkness of that non-place, reconnect with the light and rediscover how much potential for escape exists in our everyday lives.
Bar Luna was more than just a multimedia exhibit; it was an opportunity to embark on a visual and introspective journey into our roots. This underground dimension dialogues perfectly with the urban landscape, threading through Rohrwacher’s entire filmography and addressing two profound questions:
What do we do with our past? What are our origins?
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