Federico Solmi

Inspired by ancient mythology, modern myth, and contemporary celebrity culture, The Bacchanalian Ones compares the historical myth with a satirical mash-up of the powerful self-absorbed who preen and wallow in a banal spectacle of their own creation. In a fantastically opulent setting of unrestrained hedonism, political, religious, and military leaders with ghoulish, bouffonesque appearances are surrounded by social elite sycophants like the devotees of the cults of Bacchus and Dionysus.

Solmi’s phantasmagoric world of whirling space, jerking movement, and oscillating facades that strive to overwhelm the viewer’s visual field is pushed to extremes in a new interactive Virtual Reality installation. This work invites the visitor to enter the Bacchanal by donning a VR mask and manipulating two hand-held controllers in order to pick the perspective of one of his historical avatars. Newly empowered, and emboldened, the visitor is able to control the narrative, allowing them to experience the debauchery up close and personal through their embodiment of the avatar.

Upcoming → THE BACCHANALIAN ONES – ROWAN UNIVERSITY GALLERY, CURATED BY MARY SALVANTE, GLASSBORO, NEW JERSEY

- November 2, 2020 – January 9, 2021

THE BACCHANALIAN ONES, SOLO EXHIBITION - LUIS DE JESUS, LOS ANGELES

- April 24, 2021 - June 19, 2021.