Doug + Mike Starn: Big Bambú

A new iteration of the gravity-defying installation opens 11 December at the MACRO Testaccio, as the main protagonist of the sixth edition of Enel Contemporanea: here, we unveil some of the images of the work in progress.

The newest iteration of the gravity-defying installation Big Bambú by American artists Doug and Mike Starn is currently being installed in the MACRO Testaccio, Rome, as the protagonist of the sixth edition of the Enel Contemporanea, curated by Francesco Bonami. This year's edition of the event celebrates the 50th anniversary of Enel, and the installation will allow visitors to experience the museum area of the MACRO Testaccio in a new way.

Thousands of bamboo rods will be connected and interlocked in a traditional method, creating an unusual, sculptural structure where visitors can go along paths and walkways, suspended mid-air. The installation has been designed by the Starn brothers as a living organism, constantly changing in its complexity and energy. As part of the Big Bambú series, the structure will rise up to 25 metres.

The flexibility and interlacing of the bamboo not only create physical construction elements, but simultaneously evoke mental elements of reflection, a large living organism that transforms itself, moves, adapts to time, constantly growing. With Big Bambú, the Starn brothers create one of the few works of contemporary art that remains continuously organic and alive, capable of welcoming the audience and incorporating them as an integral part of the process.

Doug and Mike Starn, <em>Big Bambú: You Can't, You Don't and You Won't Stop</em>, MACRO Testaccio, Rome — Doug and Mike Starn, *Big Bambú: You Can't, You Don't and You Won't Stop*, MACRO Testaccio, Rome

Previous editions of Enel Contemporanea have presented the works of nine international artists. Recently, the event presented Carsten Höller's Double Carousel with Zöllner Stripes (2011) and Bik Van der Pol's butterfly house Are you really sure that a floor can't also be a ceiling? (2010). The event foresees every year the realization of works of art around the theme of Energy, always commissioning artists of different nationalities.

From 11 December 2012
Doug + Mike Starn: Big Bambú
MACRO Testaccio
Piazza Orazio Giustiniani 4, Rome

Doug + Mike Starn: Big Bambú

A new iteration of the gravity-defying installation opens 11 December at the MACRO Testaccio, as the main protagonist of the sixth edition of Enel Contemporanea: here, we unveil some of the images of the work in progress.

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