Ad Sidera per Athanasius Kircher is a project conceived by the artist Cybèle Varela and dedicated to Athanasius Kircher, considered the last of the polymaths, who lived in seventeenth century Rome.

The project is articulated into several exhibitions, featuring paintings, digital photographs, video, books and sculptures, such as the revisited copy of the obelisk designed by Kircher and dedicated to Christina of Sweden and then to Clement IX. Surroundings, a visual installation accompanied by a musical background by the German composer Peter Pannke, entitled Kircher's Lauschangriff, completes the show.

Ad Sidera per Athanasius Kircher provides a path into Kircher’s world, revisited through a contemporary gaze. Conversation suspended in time, subtly ironical, proposes a reflection on the interference of the possible, beyond the boundaries of creativity.

The first exhibition took place in Rome in March 2008, at the Crociera of the Collegio Romano, in the same location where four centuries ago Kircher’s museum, known as the Museum Kircherianum was. It will travel to some of the most beautiful and most prestigious libraries in Italy, among historic buildings and ancient monasteries and then abroad.

Curator: Cybèle Varela
Under the patronage of the Italian Ministry of Culture – General Direction for Libraries and Cultural Institutes and National Institute of Roman Studies – ONLUS