Pompeii Commitment. Archaeological Matters presents the Digital Fellowship of artist Liliane Lijn, entitled Sunstar on Mount Vesuvius. This project offers an immersion into the creative and scientific process behind the solar installation Sunstar, proposing a new iteration of the work for the Pompeii Archaeological Park, imagined on Mount Vesuvius.
Drawing inspiration from Pompeii’s relationship with its natural surroundings, Liliane Lijn’s Digital Fellowship reveals the behind-the-scenes development of the site-specific environmental installation Sunstar as the artist proposes to the Archaeological Park of Pompeii a new iteration of the project, hypothetically reconfigured on Mount Vesuvius.
For the very first time, the artist shares her private archive and gives a fully detailed account of the history of this site-specific solar installation, looking into its origins and development since the early 2000s, thanks to her close collaboration with astrophysicist John Vallerga. The archive material is accompanied by a new essay expressly written by Lijn. Part scholarly journal and part memoir, the text allows the reader to delve into both the scientific, intellectual and even intimate dimensions of the artwork, revealing the layers of co-creation, speculative thinking and experimental innovation that underpin her solar installation.
The new iteration of the solar installation would generate a small, intense point of light — a starlight — perched on the summit of the volcano, making it possible to look directly at sunlight, something that is usually only possible during solar eclipses. In hypothesising the realisation of the installation of Sunstar on Mount Vesuvius for the Archeological Park of Pompeii, the artist invites the audience to consider not only the beauty of the project but also its conceptual depth, while the complex relationship between sun, earth, and humanity — as well as the entanglement between all forms and expressions of life — unfold on the horizon. Sunstar on Mount Vesuvius aims to generate a renewed perception of natural light, and of its generative and transformative energy. It is a reflection on how we notice or neglect our surroundings, urging us to show awareness of and take responsibility for the planet we co-inhabit.
This Digital Fellowship is presented in partnership with Madre – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina di Napoli and mumok – Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, and is launched on the same day as Liliane Lijn. Arise Alive, the artist’s most comprehensive institutional solo presentation to date held at the Viennese Museum.
Since 2022, the Digital Fellowship programme, currently developed in partnership with the publishing house Artem, enables international participants to carry out an expanded research – both remote and in situ – over a period of several months, focusing on Pompeii or aspects related to its symbology and significance in general. The Digital Fellowships facilitate artistic and curatorial research within Pompeii’s uniquely trans-temporal, multi-species, and deeply entangled context. These are part of Pompeii Commitment. Archaeological Matters, the first long-term, contemporary art programme established by the Archaeological Park of Pompeii.
(from the press release)
