At the OGR Turin, Art Meets Technology Among Stars, Data, and Electric Dreams
At OGR Torino the other night, it felt as if art had decided to tune itself to the universe. Just as the title of Laure Prouvost’s new project — “We Felt a Star Dying” — suggests, the opening evening of the new exhibitions inside the Fondazione CRT’s hub had something cosmic about it: pulsing, fragile, and resonant. A vibration running through the old railway workshops, translating into light, sound, and matter.
OGR hosted three projects that intertwine art and technology, memory and future: alongside Prouvost’s immersive installation — curated for LAS by Carly Whitefield and for OGR by Samuele Piazza — came the group show “Electric Dreams. Art & Technology Before the Internet”, curated by Val Ravaglia and Samuele Piazza, and “Drumming for Love” by Kosovar artist Erzë Dinarama.
There was a charged energy running through the industrial corridors and sensory projections. Present at the triple vernissage — alongside OGR president Davide Canavesio, Patrizia Polliotto, general secretary of the CRT Foundation and the three artists — were numerous figures from the art world, including Francesco Manacorda, Diego Perrone, Francesco Simeti, Davide Quadrio, Francesco Stocchi, Luca Molinari, Ilaria Bonacossa, Daniel Birnbaum, Walter Guadagnini, Draga & Aurel, Ilaria Marotta e Andrea Baccin, who moved between the tracks as if traversing parallel universes: from Prouvost’s quantum journey, conceived with philosopher Tobias Rees and scientist Hartmut Neven, founder of Google Quantum AI — transforming quantum computing into a sensorial experience — to Electric Dreams, which revisits more than forty years of artistic experimentation before the Internet era, when imagination was still an open field to explore.
Finally, at Binario 3, Drumming for Love: the heartbeat of the River Po translated into data, images, and sounds. During her OGR residency as part of the European program S+T+ARTS4WaterII, Erzë Dinarama gives voice to the river — and to the communities living along its banks — through a visual score that blends ecology, emotion, and algorithm.
Three exhibitions, three languages meeting to reaffirm OGR’s vocation as a laboratory for the future: a place where artistic research doesn’t just represent the world, but stubbornly attempts to rewrite its code.
Text: Germano D’Acquisto
Photo: Ludovica Arcero
