Martellata. A publication about the attack to the David of Michelangelo, explained from all the involved actants

Application summary

The research project 'Martellata_14.09.91' happens in several outputs, from which the publication is the most important one. It is for this reason that its title is almost homonym. 'Martellata' presents a selection of all documents and information compiled during the investigation period, building up a chrono-material and dialectical reflection of the hammer blow to the second toe of the left food of the David. Escaping the accumulative logic of the archive, the book gathers, reviews and activates the different voices and perspectives of the agents and actants involved directly or indirectly in/by “the attack”. In the book the notions of multivocality, multifocality and dys-poiesis have their maximum expression, within a conversational narration navigating between art history, psychiatry, restoration, geology, documentation and new materialisms. The publication aims to contribute to the theories on artistic reception, and vandalism, with an object-oriented perspective, considering the material quality/ies (and behaviours) of the masterpiece. This specific approach is motivated by the fact that significant scientific information for the conservation of the sculpture was obtained after the chemical and petrographic analyses of two of the fragments detached from the sculpture. ‘Martellata_14.09.91’ is a major component of the ongoing doctoral thesis 'Behaving Unconventionally in Gallery Settings’.