La Mossa di Ettore (Ettore’s Move) is a work inspired by Ettore Majorana (1906-1938?), a nuclear physicist and chess player, whose mysterious disappearance spawned a whole series of theories. A voice, broadcast into the museum galleries, talks about a chess game, played especially on 5 October 2014 at MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, by two great chess masters, Lexy Ortega (Camaguey, 1960) and Massimiliano Lucaroni (Latina, 1969). With them, the artist introduced a new chess move inspired by Majorana, who is said to have decided to pull out from a potentially disastrous situation after he became involved in the possible development of nuclear fission. The space also has a table-chessboard, with engraved squares in anticipation of the end of the game.
Curated by: Hou Hanru
Premiered at: MAXXI Museum, Rome for the exhibition Open Museum Open City, in the frame of the performance cycle Exercise of Revolution co-curated with Nomas Foundation.
La Mossa di Ettore is now part of the collection of MAXXI Museum Rome.
In collaboration with: Italian Chess Federation
In partnership with: MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma, programma Artisti in Residenza.
Photos: Laura Estrada Pranda, Gianfranco Fortuna
Thanks to: Giulia Ferracci, Rossana Miele and Fabrizio Sartori