Marco Brambilla

• The Four Temperaments AR
  2020, Augmented Reality

In The Four Temperaments AR, Cate Blanchett performs four sets of distinct character types divided according to a personality classification first defined by the Greek philosopher, Galen. He named the four “Temperaments” Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, and Phlegmatic.

In the work, the characters performed by Blanchett each appear within a single floating crystal ball. The character fixes her gaze and addresses the viewer with the words “I Love you”. As further characters are introduced, the emotional charge of the statement shifts across the spectrum of the four temperamental types.

The Temperaments confronts with familiar emotions shifting between intimacy and distance, gentleness and brutality; the overall effect assigns a crescendo of disquiet on the viewer voyeur who inadvertently becomes the subject in the cross-fire of emotions, the repetition of which make them at once engaging and generic.

With the help of augmented reality, Marco Brambilla’s exploration of the four temperaments can now reach viewers anywhere. The new form of viewer participation that this medium makes possible turns the spectators into active co-producers. Viewed through the Acute Art app, the works interact seamlessly with the world that surrounds them and reach audiences far beyond the gallery space where we expect contemporary art.

• Creation (Megaplex) VR
  2019, Virtual Reality

Based on his 2012 work Creation (Megaplex), video installation artist Marco Brambilla’s first virtual reality artwork is set between the birth and death of the universe and all that pop culture created during its existence. Modelled on DNA strands, this universal vortex travels in the form of a comic pullback, with the viewer ultimately witnessing the world implode before the spiral loops back to the moment of origin. 

Based in London, Brambilla is primarily known for his elaborate re-contextualizations of found imagery, often employing new technologies in his work, having pioneered the use of 3D technology in video art.