Maria Molteni: Gateway to Infinity (an anti-monument), 2023
Rethinking Public Monuments in Boston
Stretching 40 feet in diameter, Gateway to Infinity (an anti-monument) is a vibrant, large-scale groundwork by Boston-based queer, interdisciplinary artist Maria Molteni. Gateway to Infinity explores site-specific histories and collective rebirth through a design created during 10 months of extensive research by the artist. As with many of Molteni’s massive groundworks, Gateway to Infinity features abstract symbols anchored in the land, sea, body, and celestial beings. Centered around a vibrant triple spiral motif –a three-limbed symbol known as a “triskeles/triskelion”– the groundwork may be viewed from an infinite range of angles and orientations, instead of a single, definitive perspective or starting point.
Located between Christopher Columbus Park and Faneuil Hall, the mural invites audiences to reflect upon and contend with these sites’ legacies, consider non-dominant narratives of place and public memory, and find personal connections with their own histories. By centering moving, living bodies upon a communal platform, rather than atop towering pedestals, Gateway to Infinity (an anti-monument) creates a colorful, multifaceted labyrinth and space for processing, releasing, and healing.
Painting assistance was provided by artists Laura Ganci, Nicole Hogarty, and Ali Reid.
On Summer Solstice 2023, Molteni and non-binary Italian American collaborators Vin Caponigro, Laura Campagna, and Ash Capachione hosted a public ritual upon the newly painted artwork. Representing expansive, non-dual consciousness, four figures called upon the sun, ocean, and three celestial bodies –the Moon, Venus, and Mars– to aid in a regenerative alchemical process.
Walking the spiraling labyrinth, the performers made a cyclical journey to restore connections of the mind and heart, land and sea, past and future. Drawing upon writer Audre Lorde’s framework of the “Master’s Tools” as well as the “Monster’s Tools” offered by thinker Ece Canli, Molteni and their collaborators alchemized the energy of the summer solstice to transform family heirlooms and forge new tools and paths for the future.
Visitors were invited to participate via printed paper talismans, a collective movement ritual, and personal family heirlooms (physical or conceptualized). The performance lives on via a collaborative publication and a short film./
Photos by Chris Rucinski and Mel Taing. Graphic design by Vin Caponigro.
