Dark Collection (Sistine Chapel)

Designed as physical works installed directly on the wall, the “Third Eye Prophecy” consists of a series of two-dimensional bas-relief symbols, characterized by magnetized triangular joints and ping-pong balls held in magnetic tension. While these hybrid devices function as physical augmented reality markers, they also act as the conceptual gateway to a broader, immaterial ecosystem. Following the first chapter inaugurated on Christmas Night 2019 at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, Luca Pozzi’s process of teleporting digital sculptures continues within the Sistine Chapel, in the heart of Vatican City, during the dramatic peak of the Covid-19 health emergency.

Released at midnight on Easter Sunday, April 12th, 2020, as a free Android smartphone application downloadable directly from the artist’s website, this project creates an alternative, permanent exhibition titled the “Dark Collection.” By pointing a smartphone camera at the physical wall installations—or by aligning the app with the official Vatican Museums online virtual tour—spectators can evoke a series of thirteen 3D digital sculptures. These floating, quasi-objects appear as tennis balls ovalized by speed, each featuring an explosive pupil at its center: contemporary quantum prophets that materialize directly within the hyper-technological architecture of the Sistine Chapel, frescoed by Italian Renaissance masters.

In this unique immersive environment—originally designed as a visual “Theory of Everything” and inscribed with the proportions of Solomon’s Temple—the Chapel’s historical narrative expands through a parallel, immaterial archive. The artist donated this dark collection to the Christian community during a moment of profound health, economic, and identity crisis, demonstrating how art can connect distant realities even while respecting strict quarantine measures from home.

Accustomed to creating environmental installations that distort time and explore entangled correlations in historical locations, Luca Pozzi acts here as a mathematical operator, a function of connectivity within a multi-dimensional and multi-temporal system. He envisions the Sistine Chapel as a device that simultaneously intertwines three distinct time loops: the Infinite Past of the Genesis (the Ceiling), the Infinite Present of the Old and New Testaments (the North, South, and East walls), and the Infinite Future of the Last Judgment (the West Wall).

Utilizing target-image technology and the Unity game engine, Pozzi geolocates these floating presences among the layered narratives of the Chapel. They are strategically placed to reflect, connect, and multiply the two-dimensional information stored on the architectural surfaces. As a result, these alien, quantum-inspired objects appear suspended between Domenico Ghirlandaio’s Passage of the Red Sea and Cosimo Rosselli’s The Delivery of the Tables of the Law; between Perugino’s Baptism of Christ and Botticelli’s Temptations; as well as between Michelangelo’s Last Judgment and Stories of Genesis.

Deeply inspired by the Loop Quantum Gravity theory formulated by Carlo Rovelli, Abhay Ashtekar, and Lee Smolin, as well as by Multi-Messenger cosmology (the study of Gravitational Waves, Neutrinos, Gamma Rays, and Dark Matter), the “Dark Collection” superimposes three fields of research. It attempts an interdisciplinary visual bridge between theoretical physics, theology, and experimental physics. These intangible sculptures do not exist a priori; instead, they spark into existence through the perspective alignment of the spectators who, acting as real particle detectors, access a network of pure information.