The installation by Mexican artist Pablo Dàvila, on display in the Landscapes Room on the Fine Arts floor, explores the nature of time. Time moves in one direction, Memory in another consists of two works: Senza Replica and Transference Harmonies. It builds on Gianni Motti’s Big Crunch Clock installation on the museum’s façade (recently acquired by the MAH) and the past exhibition Ten Billion Years.

Senza Replica is a piano composition that explores the dizzying nature of time. It activates a musical clock via an electronic system. This system sets the 88 keys of a piano in endless motion through a sequence that plays all possible chords at a rate of one chord per second. This performance plays with the nearly limitless possibilities contained within an object, with the changing nature and limits of time, and with the uniqueness of the moment. As we listen to each chord—with no repetition—the immensity of time becomes apparent, while simultaneously the irretrievable loss of the present moment becomes a reality. Watching the piano in motion without human assistance evokes a sense of absence and prompts us to reflect on the notions of harmony, meaning, and emotion.

Also exploring the concept of time, Transference Harmonies is a universe born of random fluctuations and composed of a screen that interprets an astronomical amount of digital data through white, black, and two shades of gray. This data is processed by a computational system that creates a film capable of lasting billions of billions of years. The number of possible combinations contains more than 700,000 digits. The image resulting from this complex process appears at first glance to be visual noise. However, upon closer inspection of the screen, a series of patterns emerges, and recognizable images may appear. For Pablo Dàvila, “the universe is asymmetrical in time. The future is open and yet to be shaped. We can choose to influence it. Imagination is essential.” This piece explores a different path from the one through which we understand life, featuring a film that jumps forward in time every tenth of a second.