QUAYOLA. Strata #1

From September 18, 2025, to January 11, 2026, the LED wall at Palazzo Citterio will host Strata #1 by Quayola: a digital installation that reinterprets the vault of the Church of the Gesù in Rome through algorithmic variations.

Project realized in collaboration with the National Museum of Digital Art (MNAD)

Starting on September 18, 2025, the LED wall on the ground floor of Palazzo Citterio will be transformed into a portal between the past and the future. Strata #1, a digital installation by Roman artist Davide Quayola, will animate the space with an immersive work that reinterprets the vault of the Church of the Gesù in Rome through algorithmic variations.

Realized in collaboration with the National Museum of Digital Art (MNAD) and recently acquired for its collection thanks to PAC/MIC 2024 – Plan for Contemporary Art, Strata #1 is part of the exhibition cycle promoted by the Pinacoteca di Brera in dialogue with new technologies. A program that explores the potential of the digital dimension in reinterpreting historical heritage.

In this artwork, the visual codes of Roman Baroque—forms, colors, geometries—are reworked by computational processes that dissolve them into abstract configurations. The result is a new, non-human aesthetic that challenges the boundaries between figuration and abstraction, between memory and future. The large screen of Palazzo Citterio thus becomes a surface of translation: on one side, history; on the other, the infinite possibilities opened up by the algorithm.

Davide Quayola, a leading figure in contemporary digital art, uses the language of technology to explore the tensions between seemingly opposing forces—real and artificial, tradition and innovation. His works have been exhibited in prestigious international institutions including the V&A Museum in London, Park Avenue Armory in New York, National Art Center in Tokyo, UCCA in Beijing, How Art Museum in Shanghai, SeMA in Seoul, Palais de Tokyo in Paris; Ars Electronica Festival in Linz; Sonar Festival in Barcelona; and the Sundance Film Festival. In 2013, he was awarded the Golden Nica at Ars Electronica.

With Strata #1, Quayola offers a radical reflection on the transformation of artistic heritage through the digital gaze, capable of revealing hidden layers and new visual genealogies.

In the heart of Brera, a symbolic place of memory and knowledge, Strata #1 does not offer a nostalgic celebration of the past, but an invitation to contemplate it as living, unstable, generative matter. A unique opportunity to question the role of technology in expanding our view of cultural heritage.