Nobilis Golden Moon

On March 22, 2024, at the Auditorium of the MAXXI Museum in Rome, Acqua Foundation presented Nobilis Golden Moon for the first time in Rome. This is a film by Mariagrazia Pontorno, an artist who has always been investigating the boundaries between the artificial and the natural, and who, for some time now, has shifted her research focusing on the boundaries between art and science.

Nobilis Golden Moon was filmed between two pandemics, two full moons and two cities: Valencia and Sant’Antioco. This short was presented at Maritima01 and promoted by the Elena Posokhova’s Valencia-based Art Made Cultural Association, developed in collaboration with institutions such as the University of Valencia, the French Institute, the EASD, the Nau or Carmen Center of Contemporary Culture and in partnership with Acqua Foundation.

It is the story of Pinna Nobilis, the largest bivalve mollusc in the Mediterranean. Also known as the ‘Mediterranean Sentinel’, it is over a metre long and is at risk of extinction due to a pandemic disease. Byssus – a textile fibre also used in antiquity to weave fine fabrics – is made from this mollusc.

The first full moon marks Mariagrazia Pontorno’s first stage in Valencia. Here, a group of scientists seek solutions to combat the extinction of the Pinna Nobilis with the LIFE PINNARCA project, bringing together researchers from all over Europe. Jose Tena and Jose Rafael Garcia March, part of the project, explain how, by studying some specimens kept in captivity in their laboratory tanks, they try to reproduce the molluscs in a protected environment, as well as investigating which factors are causing their extinction.

The second stop of the journey, coinciding with the second full moon, is in Sant’Antioco in Sardinia, where Chiara Vigo lives. She is the ‘last priestess’ of byssus and knows this mollusc better than anyone else in the world. Above all, the secret of her workmanship is kept here, following on from her grandmother. The extraction and processing of this sacred thread brings together craft skills and esoteric practices. To undertake this process is to embark on a real journey between science and magic.

Chiara Vigo clarifies the importance of the presence of this mollusc, which purifies water from polluting impurities, clarifying its scientific interest. The sebaceous gland that runs through the mantle of the Pinna Nobilis, explains the priestess to Mariagrazia Pontorno, excretes a slime that solidifies in contact with seawater, which then becomes pure silk. “Byssus is the soul of water, and man without water cannot survive,” says Chiara Vigo in a prophetic tone. The tale unfolds gradually so as not to reveal any trace of the secret that binds byssus processing to an oral tradition handed down in an exclusive elective ritual. “Oral transmission is like a soul that is cultivated over a lifetime. It is a soul that grows with small things and big gestures, producing situations that others don’t have to understand – a secret kept between grandmother and granddaughter.”

With this dialogue where science and esotericism converge in the magic of Sardinian tradition and landscape, the film reaches its final chapter. The journey does not end. It continues among all that the film brings to our knowledge: the Pinna Nobilis, the importance of its role in the ecosystem, its transformation into the inanimate life of objects, such as fabrics embroidered with sacred byssus. The film is the encounter between man and nature, between arts and science, all sealed by a ritual steeped in knowledge, experience and magic.