HOW THE PROJECT STARTED
This project is being run since 2018 by Anders Rådén and Matt Smith, both of them digital artists and designers.
This whole project is being run without any funding. Funding has proven difficult to get from established institutions and foundations, most likely because we combine two categories that seldom meet: historical art and ground-breaking technology. Countless of hours of work has been conducted in our spare time, so if anyone is interested in funding our continued research, sculpting and 3D printing, or have any ideas for interesting collaborations that will increase the knowledge of Boccioni's lost sculptures, please do not hesitate to contact us.
On a research trip to Italy in 2007, Matt Smith stumbled across the book Boccioni: Pittore Scultore Futurista. Here he learned about eight sculptures by the artist Umberto Boccioni that had been destroyed. Matt since made it his ambition to recreate these lost works, and in 2015 he successfully kickstarted a project to digitally reconstruct and 3D print Spiral Expansion of Muscles in Movement (1).
Anders Rådén knew about some of the sculptural precursors to Unique Forms of Continuity in Space and had for a long time wondered if they could be reconstructed digitally. In 2018 he made a successful test run with Speeding Muscles and published it on Twitter (2). Smith contacted Rådén, and they decided to work together to reconstruct some of the remaining sculptures as a first stage, primarily the "striders". They approached the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art who were very forthcoming and suggested a date for an exhibition of the lost sculptures in the autumn of 2019. This exhibition was an enormous success with lots of positive feedback both from audience and press.
The Boccioni Recreated Project is indebted to the following, who have greatly helped with crucial information and archival material:
Marília Bovo Lopes, MAC USP Collection
Christopher Adams, Estorick Collection
Rosalind McKever, Victoria and Albert Museum
Virginia Mokslaveskas, Getty Research Institute
Christina Moretta, San Francisco History Center
Paolo Benassai, Fondazione Longhi
Maria Grazia Conti, Museo del Novecento
Elda Frigato, Biblioteca Civica Verona
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