Doublin’

Context
The project was born in partnership with the Joyciano and Sveviano Museum and Cizerouno on the occasion of the 2019 Bloomsday in Trieste. It is part of the reflection of Riccardo Cepach, head of the museum, on the concept of an open museum and experiential dynamics in cultural and tourist animation paths.

Intervention
Doublin’ is a path of public art and artist lights that works on the concept of a double city: a dreamlike toponymy created by artist lights overlaps and transfigures the urban spaces of Cavana in James Joyce’s Dublin to unite the literary place and the physical one in a suggestive game of luminous evocations. Five neon lights that “duplicate” the old city, drawing parallels between its concrete and “artistic” vitality, fixing memories and bringing out memories. The artistic lights, specially created and installed on some buildings in via della Pescheria, via del Sale and via San Rocco follow Joyce’s steps in the narrow streets of Cavana, in what in his time was the Night Town of Trieste, made up of taverns and prostitutes – two lights shine right on the facades of what were the brothels frequented by Joyce.

Side notes 
Doublin’ wants to set in motion the great circle of influence and invention that linked the city, starting from Joyce’s stay in Trieste, to the creation of Ulysses. The writer arrived in the city with his partner Nora Barnacle on 20 October 1904 to remain there, with some interruptions, until 1915. He would return one last time in the two-year period 1919-1920.

The project was awarded in 2021 in the context of the international Arte Laguna Prize, surpassing a selection of over 4000 artists and 12,000 works and exhibited in the Arsenale in Venice from 2 to 24 October 2021.