As part of ART CITY Bologna 2026, CUBO, business museum of the Unipol Group in Bologna, presents from Feb. 6 to May 26 Pointing Nemo. Beyond Space to the Abyss, a solo exhibition by the IOCOSE collective curated by Federica Patti. The project is part of the ninth edition of das - experimental art dialogues and takes place at CUBO’s two Bologna venues, Porta Europa and Torre Unipol, with a press preview set for Thursday, Feb. 5 at 1:45 p.m. at Porta Europa, followed by the opening on Friday, Feb. 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the same venue and Saturday, Feb. 7 at 6:30 p.m. at Torre Unipol.
The exhibition takes off from a historical context in which the space race has returned to the center of public debate, fueled by private missions, promises of multiplanetary futures and a rhetoric that proposes space exploration as humanity’s inevitable destiny. Pointing Nemo intercepts this topicality, focusing in particular on the NewSpace movement, a phenomenon that reinterprets the idea of space colonization according to new economic and symbolic logics, often untethered from real scientific assumptions. In this vision, space is configured as a frontier to be capitalized, rather than a shared horizon, and becomes a narrative device capable of generating consensus, desire and financial value around a few global protagonists. The curatorial project critically observes the founding myths of this ideology, highlighting how NewSpace is based on the construction of persuasive narratives that transform technological innovation into a saving promise. In this scenario, the idea of progress is intertwined with renewed forms of colonialism and a strongly Western imaginary, which tends to reproduce dynamics of conquest rather than exploration. It is in this space of friction between ideology, economics and imaginary that the work of IOCOSE, a collective active since 2006 and engaged in a critical reflection on the rhetorics of technological innovation, is located.
The works presented at CUBO address the contradictions of 21st century space colonization, questioning the relationship with otherness, the economic and ecological impact on planet Earth, and the persistence of a gaze that transforms the unknown into a resource to be exploited. The title of the exhibition refers to Point Nemo, the point in the Pacific Ocean farthest from any landmass, known as the site of satellite and space station decommissioning. This reference becomes a key that shifts the focus from the cosmic horizon to the terrestrial abyss, suggesting a continuity between the imagery of space and its material fallout on the planet.
Pointing Nemo connects already well-known works by the collective, such as 2016’s Moving Forward, to new, unseen productions made especially for the occasion and premiered at CUBO, including Hic Sunt Dracones and 2026’s PNT - Point Nemo Tower. The exhibition is articulated as a narrative device that alternates between irony and estrangement, privileging small gestures and marginal details to question the dominant narratives of progress. For das.09, IOCOSE builds Nemo Heights, an imaginary futurist agency promoting space travel and investment, simulating languages and communication strategies typical of NewSpace. The Hollow Chorus (Geodome), a large geodesic structure made of lacquered wood from 2021, is installed outside in the Porta Europa building. Inside, works such as Moving Forward, a treadmill that forces the body into continuous motion with no real advancement, physically translate the idea of infinite progress reduced to a repetitive gesture. The 2022 video Going to Earth to Benefit Space addresses one of NewSpace’s recurring slogans, showing how the promise of “going to space to help the Earth” ends up shifting responsibility related to the climate crisis elsewhere.
At the Unipol Tower, the journey takes a further critical and imaginative level. The space is transformed into Point Nemo Tower, a symbolically inverted structure that looks to the future as if it were already past time, returning an image made of discards, symbolic ruins and unfulfilled promises, alongside promotional videos and collectibles. With Hic Sunt Leones of 2024 and Hic Sunt Dracones, large prints on rip-stop fabric mounted like parachutes, IOCOSE retrieves mottos from medieval cartography used to indicate unknown territories, translating them into binary code and superimposing them over images of precipitation on Point Nemo. The operation highlights the continuity between colonial maps of the past and new spatial geographies. The Fortune Teller of 2020, a series of circular prints, completes the journey by suggesting a future reduced to automated prediction and prepackaged fate.
In keeping with the tradition of the das review, the exhibition is accompanied by a program of meetings and events that explore the themes addressed by the project. A live performance by Morra mc in collaboration with NEU radio is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 6, at Porta Europa. Saturday, Feb. 7, there is a meeting with artists in dialogue with critic and curator Claudio Musso and, in the evening, a sound performance by Valeria Sturba at the Unipol Tower. A talk with astrophysicist and science popularizer Edwige Pezzulli is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 8, while on Thursday, April 9, the catalog presentation features IOCOSE and Eva Diaz, professor at the Pratt Institute in New York, in dialogue with curator Federica Patti.
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| Pointing Nemo: IOCOSE and the rhetorics of NewSpace on display in Bologna |
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