From 25 June to 2 August 2026, the monumental spaces of Theatre 2 at Mattatoio in Rome host, for the first time in the city, The Abstract Films: Sculpting Narratives in Space (2023–2025), a series of immersive and interactive works by Chiara Passa. The project consists of four films,Yellow Film, Black & White Film, Red Film, and Blue Film.
Exploring the boundary between the real and the virtual, the quadrilogy invites viewers to become active participants. A minimalist aesthetic, composed of solid geometries and electronic music, combines with a mutable, non-linear structure. Each film involves a different form of interaction, ranging from the manipulation of physical objects to choices generated through AI. In every case, narrative continuity is disrupted and reshaped, leading audiences through an experience that merges film, sculpture, and play.
Conceived as fluid, digital, and multisensory narrative environments, The Abstract Films establish a direct dialogue with the raw and layered physicality of Rome’s former industrial complex. Timeworn surfaces, metal structures, and irregular architectural volumes become integral components of the work, generating a continuous tension between material memory and algorithmic imagination.
The four LED walls, positioned on the floor and equipped with directional audio systems, are embedded within the space as digital membranes that reinterpret the site’s geometry. They follow, contradict, reinvent, and amplify the original architectural lines, transforming the environment into a hybrid organism. In this process, digital architectures revisit the former Mattatoio not as a mere support structure but as an active matrix: absorbing its productive history, reactivating its structural tensions, and projecting new perceptual possibilities.
The encounter between industrial archaeology and digital abstraction creates a field of forces in which matter, light, and movement continuously rewrite one another. Through questions generated by artificial intelligence, appearing as interactive buttons and objects, the audience is invited projection of new possible spaces. The Mattatoio itself becomes a computational membrane traversed by algorithmic images, sound interactions, and constantly evolving abstract architectures.
Each of the four films presents a distinct mode of audience interaction:
Yellow Film: narrative remixing through thirty interactive envelopes synchronized with a suspenseful electronic soundtrack.
Black & White Film: narrative manipulation through thirty sculptural objects and sequences accompanied by minimalist techno rhythms.
Blue Film: AI prompts and remixed sound effects guide a dynamic and ever-changing experience.
Red Film: AI prompts, sonic interactions, and chromatic shifts continuously redirect the narrative flow.
Together, the works form an immersive and participatory ecosystem in which architecture expands, reflects upon itself, and dissolves into digital abstractions. Visitors become part of a new emotional cartography where urban memory, industrial archaeology, and algorithmic imagination coexist within the same space.
(from the press release)
Chiara Passa, The Abstract Films: Sculpting Narratives in Space, curated by Laura Leuzzi and Paola Lagonigro
Pelanda, Mattatoio, Rome, 25.06 – 02.08.2026
The exhibition is promoted by the Department of Culture of Roma Capitale, Azienda Speciale Palaexpo and Fondazione Mattatoio – Città delle Arti and organised by Azienda Speciale Palaexpo in collaboration with Latitudo. The exhibition will be accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, to be presented in September, edited by Paola Lagonigro and Laura Leuzzi, featuring texts by the curators and by artist and curator Darko Fritz, a pioneer of Croatian digital art. As part of the exhibition programme, two guided tours led by the curators will take place: 14 July at 6:00 PM with Paola Lagonigro and 22 July at 6:00 PM with Laura Leuzzi. Both events will offer visitors an opportunity to explore the exhibition and the artist’s research in greater depth.
Chiara Passa is an Italian artist whose practice explores immersive digital architectures and spatial transformation through augmented reality, virtual reality, and interactive audiovisual environments. Active in media art since the late 1990s, her research investigates the relationship between physical and virtual space, developing perceptual ecosystems in which algorithmic images, digital architectures, and interaction continuously redefine the viewer’s experience. Her work has been exhibited internationally in galleries, festivals, conferences, museums, and cultural institutions, including: RomaEuropa Festival, Ex Mattatoio, Rome (2025); META PAN, Palazzo Arte Napoli (2024); Object (RE) Oriented Reality, solo exhibition, Panke Gallery, Berlin (2023); Still Life, solo exhibition, Zabludowicz Collection, London (2021–2022); MADATAC XI – Bienal Virtual de Arte de los Nuevos Medios Digitales, Madrid (2020); Object Oriented Space, solo exhibition, MLAC Museum, Rome (2019); Virtual Natives Sculpture, Roehrs & Boetsch, Zurich (2019); Oslo Night Show, HEK Museum, Basel (2018); InSonic Immersive Show, ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2017); The Ways of Something, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2016–2017); From Live Architecture: Dimensioning, solo exhibition, Furtherfield, London (2016); Off Biennale Cairo (2015–2016); ISEA Disruption, Vancouver Art Gallery (2015); Morphos, Vortex Dome, Los Angeles (2014); Media Art Histories IV – RENEW, Riga (2013); FILE – Electronic Language International Festival, São Paulo (2011); Electrofringe – Festival of New Media Art, Newcastle, Australia (2008); BizArt Center, Shanghai (2005); MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome (2004); 11th Biennial of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, Cosmos – A Sea of Art, Athens (2003); XIV Quadriennale, Royal Palace, Naples (2003); the 48th Venice Biennale (with the Oreste group), Venice (1999); and Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice (1999).
images: (cover 1) Chiara Passa, «The Abstract Films: Narratives in Space (Yellow)», 2023-26, still (2) Chiara Passa, «The Abstract Films: Narratives in Space (Red)», 2023-26, still (3) Chiara Passa, «The Abstract Films: Narratives in Space (Blue)», 2023-26, still (4) Chiara Passa, «The Abstract Films: Narratives in Space (Black/White)», 2023-26, still
