Modern Automata Museum

About

The Modern Automata Museum is a private museum of Montopoli di Sabina in the Province of Rieti, Italy, dedicated to modern automata, founded in 2001, entered in the Lazio Regional Museum organisation and listed as one of the "places of culture" from the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities. The museum is located at the Castelletto di Vezzano (ninth century), a fortified outpost of Farfa Abbey. The primary objective of the museum is to convey literary, scientific and artistic knowledge to primary and secondary schools students, through workshops for the construction of automata. The Museum director is Guido Accascina.

The automata are small mechanical sculptures, made of paper, wood and metal, which are set in motion by the visitors of the museum. They have been compared to Japanese Haiku and have been called by Lindoro Pazzotti "a small view of the world in a turn of the handle."

Diamoci un taglio by Girovago e Rondella, 2001

Circus bear & plantigrade by Paul Spooner, 2010

Birds migration by Guido Accascina (Basic Box), 2010

School workshop in Casperia - Rieti, 2009

The permanent collection consists of approximately 300 automata, made by Japanese, American, German, British, French, Canadian, South American and Italian artists.

- United Kingdom: Peter Markey, Paul Spooner, Keith Newstead, Neil Hardy, Eric Williamson, Rob Ives, Susie Stolpe, Cabaret Mechanical Theatre, Andy Hazell, Peter Lennertz

- Germany: Walter Ruffler, Malcolm Brook

- United States of America: Marc Horowitz, Juta and Jim McCord

- Italy: Rennie Orsi, Girovago e Rondella, Luca De Pascalis, Ivan Fodaro, Marina Gigli, Alessandra Celletti, Sonia Fabbrocino, Guido Accascina

Among the main works, the museum houses "Turkish Soup" by Paul Spooner, Keith Newstead seven works made during a workshop held at the Mantua Literature Festival in 2010, sixteen original works by various artists created for the exhibition "Against the idea of war" and twelve original works of various artists made for the exhibition Circus (2013). Many of the works are an example of the use of recycled materials for the construction of automata.

The museum exhibits his works in the permanent headquarters of Montopoli di Sabina, and has created a series of traveling exhibitions that are exposed to other Museums: A Museum in motion (2002), against the idea of war (2003), Circus (2013). The museum is also a place of experimentation, cataloging, archiving, documentation and dissemination.

The Museum has organized workshops for the construction of automata at other museums, at Italian and European schools and playrooms at the pediatric wards of some hospitals. The laboratories are educationally based on involvement in the process of building multidisciplinary expertise in the field of humanities, science and art, and the teaching of "seven basic mechanical notes", through the combination of which it is possible to realize complex mechanical movements. On the basis of these principles has been developed a teaching methodology and a box for the construction of automata from recycled materials at low cost.

2002 - "Discovering the secrets of movement" - from March 26 to April 22, 2002 - Explora Children's Museum - Rome - Italy (with workshop)

2002 - "Small sculptures in motion " - from November 8 to December 8, 2002 - Gallery Artealcontrario - Modena - Italy (with workshop)

2003 - "Against the idea of war" - February 21, 2003 - Explora Children's Museum - Rome - Italy

2003 - "Against the idea of war" - from March 15 to ' April 8, 2003 - Schloss Neuemburg - Germany

2003 - "Automata at Magliano Museum" - From December 22, 2002 to January 6, 2003 - Museo Archeologico di Magliano Sabino - Rome - Italy (with workshop)

2005 - "Modern Automata Museum" - from April 7 to May 4, 2005 - Puppet Museum : Int.al A. Pasqualino - Palermo - Italy