For decades, the German artists Bernd & Hilla Becher photographed the production buildings of the modern era (gasometers, water towers, furnaces, storage tanks and extraction towers) with great objectivity, following a serial and taxonomic path. The industrial structures, ‘cathedrals’ of modernity, built by anonymous figures, divided by typology and portrayed in black & white; these are all buildings earmarked for demolition after having completed their function. Through their documentation, the Bechers attempted to catalogue and conserve the image – and memory – of such structures of industrial archaeology, partly in keeping with the research of ‘conceptual’ and ‘minimal’ artistic research. The series of six photographs Gazometres (each 51x41cm, 1966-1976) produced between 1966 and 1976 in Great Britain and Germany on show in the Shit Museum, also reflect the production of biogas and the farm buildings of Castelbosco. The Bechers’ works are displayed inside the room where a futuristic heating system is installed – which then spreads throughout the whole castle – fuelled by energy obtained from the processing of cow dung.
Gaspare Luigi Marcone (April 2015)
