ROME.- Rome’s Library of Archeology and Art History presents in the historical environment of the Crociera Room the exhibition Cybèle Varela – Ad Sidera, per Athanasius Kircher, dedicated to Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), on view through April 10. Considered the last of the polymaths, Kircher devoted himself to the study of, among others, Egyptology, geology, medicine, music and mathematics. In 1651, he founded the famous Museum of Collegio Romano, in the space of the Crociera Room, a must-see stop for travellers visiting the eternal city. This exhibition will provide a path into Kircher’s world, revisited through a contemporary gaze.

The exhibition is placed under the patronage of the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, the National Institute of Roman Studies and the Academy Angelica Costantiniana, it is presented under the framework of the International Women’s Day.

Conceived and curated by the artist Cybèle Varela, the exhibition AD SIDERA, per Athanasius Kircher takes place in the space of monumental Crociera, headquarters of the Study of the Collegio Romano and Kircher’s museum, a place of passage of many researchers, from yesterday and today, and in the annex “Reading Room". Trailing her research between past and present, between places of art, historical and contemporary, the artist presents about twenty works, many of which created exclusively for the exhibition, including paintings, digital photographs, videos, books and sculptures, such as the reformulated copy of the obelisk designed by Kircher and dedicated to Christina of Sweden and then to Clement IX. An installation will be shown in the Reading Room, with a musical background by the German composer Peter Pannke, entitled Kircher's Lauschangriff.

From this unusual dialogue between the silence of the library, its architectural space and the works of the artist, the viewer will be invited to create his own theatre of the world. Conversation suspended in time, subtly ironical, AD SIDERA per Athanasius Kircher proposes a reflection on the interference of the possible, beyond the boundaries of creativity.