Liminal State is a transmedia art studio founded by Gregorio Comandini and Saverio Villirillo, creating installations, sound and light artworks, and speculative visual imaginaries for live performances, exhibitions, and museums.
For almost twenty years, through the language of new media art, they have been exploring the relationships between humans and machines, after founding NONE collective, the duo of architects and A/V artists continues their investigation into the threshold between perception, consciousness and imagination through Liminal State. The artists aim to guide participants in their works into ecstatic states where the boundary between reality and imagination dissolves. Mental journeys are generated by overstimulated bodily senses, assuming a condition of permanent change between present and future, fiction and reality, possible and impossible.
The duo defines a transmedial aesthetic characterized by dark environments, where light, video and sound construct cyclic patterns, sudden glimpses, suspensions and hypnotic crescendos that become disruptive energy and lead to an unexpected rupture.
Their works have been exhibited at Light Art Museum (Budapest/HU), Somerset House (London/UK), Fukuoka Science Museum (Fukuoka/JP), Farol Santander (Sao Paulo/BR), GresArt 671 (Bergamo/IT), Design week (Milan/IT), K11 Art Space (Guangzhou/CN), Gallerie Mercatali (Verona/IT), Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome/IT).
They designed and realized historical and scientific outreach exhibitions including “Haboob” at the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum (2023, Rome), the Roman Museum of Santa Giulia (2023, Brescia), the MIAC Italian Museum of Audiovisual and Cinema (2019, Rome), “Classico Pop” at the National Roman Museum (2018, Rome).
PULSE transmedia sculpture
Permanent installation for INGV Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia – Rome (IT)
MINDSCAPE Immersive installation
The Lamp exhibition – LIMINAL SPACE – Roma (IT)
THE LAMP kinetic light sculpture
The Lamp exhibition – LIMINAL SPACE – Roma (IT)
HABOOB Immersive installation
Sharjah Archeological Authority – Parco Archeologico del Colosseo Roma (IT)
SIGIZIA installation
Phantom Vision, Light Art Museum, Budapest (HU)
THE BRAVE NEW WORLD a/v performance
FAROUT Live Arts Festival – Ground Hall, BASE Milano (IT)
AGAINST NATURE a/v performance
LIMINAL SPACE – Roma (IT)
OLTRE performance
LIMINAL SPACE – Roma (IT)
SOLARPUNK personal exhibition
SOLARIUM, 2038 (immersive installation)
THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THE SUN,2033 (artificial sun)
DISASTER, 2061 (immersive installation)
Gres Art 671, Bergamo (IT)
BRIXIA multimedia Installations
Three permanente Artworks at the Roman Museum, Museo Santa Giulia, Brescia (IT)
COPERNICO E LA RIVOLUZIONE DEL MONDO exhibit
Parco Archeologico del Colosseo – Curia Julia, Roma (IT)
SUPERFLUO exhibit
Art Verona, Piazza Indipendenza, Verona (IT)
NUOVO MONDO a/v performance
Romaeuropa Festival, MACRO, Roma (IT)
J3RR1 sculpture
Superluminal – The Light Art Museum, Budapest (HU)
AGAINST NATURE a/v performance
Videocittà Festival, Gazometro, Roma (IT)
GIGA videomapping and light show
Videocittà Festival- Gazometro, Roma (IT)
SIMPOSIO utopia reale non-profit event
Ex Villaggio ENI – Borca di Cadore (IT)
REALITY immersive installation
Cavallerizza Reale, Torino (IT)
AGAINST NATURE a/v performance
Farout Live Media Festival, Milano (IT)
D-ZOMBIE sculpture
Cosmo art gallery, Roma (IT)
SIMPOSIO utopia reale non-profit event
Ex Villaggio ENI – Borca di Cadore (IT)
FALLING DREAMS immersive installation
Gallerie Mercatali, Verona (IT)
SOROYAMA SHARK EXHIBITION exhibit
K11 Art Space in Guangzhou (CN)
CORPO NERO light sculpture
Contemporary Cluster (IT)
DIRIYAH CULTURAL DISTRIC concept design for digital art museum
In collaboration with Studio architettura Schiattarella Associati (SAU)
MIAC Museo Italiano dell’Audiovisivo e del Cinema museum
Istituto Luce Cinecittà, Roma (IT)
J3RR1 sculpture
24/7 , Somerset House, London (UK)
AQUA immersive installation
Milano Design Week, Balich WorldWide, Milano (IT)
SIMPOSIO utopia reale non-profit event
Ex Villaggio ENI – Borca di Cadore (IT)
IL CLASSICO SI FA POP exhibition
Museo Nazionale Romano, Electa Mondadori, Roma (IT)
NO STRATA immersive installation
Farol Santander, Madai Art, Sao Paulo (BR)
MERAVIGLIA! immersive installation
Italian pavilion, Cannes Film Festival, Cannes (FR)
METABOLE permanent installation
Palazzo di Giustizia, Comune di Firenze (IT)
J3RR1 sculpture
Fukuoka Science Museum, Fukuoka (JP)
THE BRILLIANT SIDE OF US immersive installation
Italian pavilion, Cannes Film Festival, Cannes (FR)
THE CUBE immersive installation
Baslworld, Bvlgari, Basel (CH)
THE HUMAN CLOUD immersive installation
Fiumicino Airport Terminal E opening cerimony, Roma (IT)
UNIVERSO ELEGANTE immersive installation
Italian pavilion, Cannes Film Festival, Cannes (FR)
DEEP DREAM immersive installation
Digital Life, Romaeuropa Festival , MACRO, Roma (IT)
For over a decade, transmedia artists Saverio Villirillo and Gregorio Comandini have been exploring the relationships between humans and machines, producing works ranging from installations, exhibitions, and social practices. After founding NONE collective, the duo of architects and A/V artists continues their investigation into the threshold between perception, consciousness and imagination with artistic practices that induce the audience into a liminal state.
Through the language of new media, the artists aim to guide participants in their works into ecstatic states where the boundary between reality and imagination dissolves. Mental journeys are generated by overstimulated bodily senses, assuming a condition of permanent change between present and future, fiction and reality, possible and impossible.
The liminal state of altered consciousness arises from speculative narratives where the artists activate a liminal rite in which the audience takes on the central role of enchantment generator, thus constituting the fantastical substance, the magical matter that frees itself from a disenchanted world overwhelmed by a cynical realism. The duo defines a transmedial aesthetic characterized by dark environments, where light, video and sound construct cyclic patterns, sudden glimpses, suspensions and hypnotic crescendos that become disruptive energy and lead to an unexpected rupture.
Their installative and performative works resemble collective rituals where participants find themselves in a liminal state on the threshold of consciousness, identity and time, where social constraints can be temporarily dissolved and future perspectives can be questioned. The dissolution of order during liminality creates an ambiguous, fluid, and malleable situation that allows for the establishment of new customs and an individuation process.
Saverio and Gregorio’s works have been exhibited at Light Art Museum (Budapest/HU), Somerset House (London/UK), Fukuoka Science Museum (Fukuoka/JP), Farol Santander (Sao Paulo/BR), GresArt 671 (Bergamo/IT), Design week (Milan/IT), K11 Art Space (Guangzhou/CN), Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Rome/IT).
They designed and realized historical and scientific outreach exhibitions including “Copernicus and the Revolution of the World” at the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum (2023, Rome), “Classico Pop” at the National Roman Museum (2018, Rome), the Italian Museum of Audiovisual and Cinema (2019, Rome), the Roman Museum of Santa Giulia (2023, Brescia).