Le Cabine del Paradiso — I. Luna

Title: Le Cabine del Paradiso — I.

Title: Le Cabine del Paradiso — I.

PROJECT OVERVIEW "Le Cabine del Paradiso" is a project commissioned by E-Distribuzione (Enel group) for the 700th anniversary of Dante Alighieri's death (1321–2021). Nine electrical distribution cabins across Italy were painted by Neve, each one corresponding to one of the nine Heavens of Dante's Paradiso — approached through a hermetic and alchemical reading. The project received the patronage of the Italian Ministry of Culture. The paint used throughout is Aerlite — a photocatalytic titanium dioxide paint that absorbs and breaks down atmospheric nitrogen oxides. The project is built on a hidden alchemical architecture, whose sources are the Corpus Hermeticum, the Tabula Smaragdina (the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus), and the emblem book Atalanta Fugiens (Michael Maier, 1617). At the centre of this architecture is the Philosopher's Stone: the geometric figure of a circle containing a triangle containing a square containing a circle, with the nine heavens mapped onto its structure. When all nine cabins are photographed and their visual elements combined, the unified image reveals the eyes of Beatrice — Dante's guide through Paradise. The tenth heaven, the Empyrean, is ineffable: it appears only in the combination of the other nine.