Beyond the Cave: The Multisensory Journey of Keil Space

The Artistic Experience through the Philosophical Lens of Antonello Caravelli

Far from traditional museum conventions, Keil Space offers a new way to experience art, based on deep interaction with the space and its elements. Every architectural and scenographic detail is designed to stimulate the senses and the mind, fostering an experience of knowledge that goes beyond simple aesthetic. Here, art becomes a bridge between the material and immaterial dimensions, between immediate perception and conceptual elaboration.

This makes Keil Space a platform that expands artistic and philosophical dialogue, making it accessible to a heterogeneous community. Through an immersive experience that questions perception and the relationship between observer and observed, the space invites every visitor to embark on a journey of personal and collective reflection.

In this context, philosopher Antonello Caravelli presents Keil Space from a philosophical perspective, highlighting its value as a space for research and transformation. Drawing inspiration from Plato’s allegory of the cave, he interprets the visitor’s experience as an initiatory journey toward a deeper understanding of reality. Through an analysis of the different exhibition rooms and the works present, Caravelli emphasizes how Keil Space is designed to activate a dialectic between opposites: light and shadow, matter and immateriality, awareness and illusion.
His narrative guides us on a philosophical journey that uncovers the multiple layers of meaning in this unique space, suggesting that art, when experienced immersively and without preconceived filters, can become a tool for transformation and inner growth. 

Below is the full text by Caravelli, translated from the original italian to english:

Entering Keil Space is like crossing the threshold of an ancient hypogean sanctuary, where the visitor is invited to embark on a kind of initiatory journey. As soon as you pass through the entrance door, a 500-square-meter environment unfolds, evoking an immense cave, shrouded in the quiet half-light of the present, and at the same time, a bridge between the past and future. Three monolithic columns rise as guardians of the space, marking the entrance to the different rooms and infusing the environment with an aura of sanctity. Like in Plato’s myth of the cave (The Republic, VII, 514a–520a), where prisoners are freed from the illusion of shadows to reach the reality of ideas, Keil Space guides the visitor on a similar path, aimed at self-discovery and universal values.
The exhibition unfolds as a multisensory experience, designed to stimulate the visitor on multiple levels, both sensory and cognitive. To this end, the scenography is designed to intensify concentration and brain activity through heterogeneous stimulation that engages not only sight but also smell and hearing. In this novel immersive dimension, Keil Space offers the visitor the opportunity to embark on an exploratory and dialectical journey. The three rooms that make up the space stimulate a confrontation with a series of opposites—observer and observed, matter and immateriality, reality and the dreamlike dimension—leading the visitor to repeatedly question their perceptions and confront

ever-evolving visions. This process, dismantling the certainties gradually acquired, guides the observer toward a final phase of deeper understanding, where the dialectic between opposites converges into a unified and renewed vision of reality.

First Room: Material and Body

In the first room dedicated to the First Generation Bronze, the atmosphere is distinguished by a profound adherence to materiality: the bronze sculptures of Sam Keil embody an art that explores physicality not only in its tangibility but also in its most authentic reality. Details like the ridges, the marks of bronze work and the oxidation of the material define the aesthetic aspect of the works but also reveal their ontology, highlighting their place in time and the intrinsic vulnerability of matter. This room represents the initial phase of the artist’s production and symbolically the beginning of the dialectical journey within the space. The environment is dominated by Lovers, a sculpture depicting two anthropomorphic entities, intertwined and reaching upward, in a tension that expresses a form of eros capable of unfolding both in a harmonious dance and in a struggle inherent to their encounter.
The sculpture emanates a powerful evocative charge that, in its structure, may remind one of the baroque sculptures of Bernini, such as The Rape of Proserpina and Apollo and Daphne.

Second Room: Ephemeral and Time

Upon entering the second room, with the Second Generation Bronze, the visitor enters a more complex and elusive dimension, standing in perfect antithesis to the materiality of the first room. Samantha Keil’s art, in this evolutionary phase, is marked by a transition from the solid to the evanescent, as if the artist were deliberately abandoning physicality to explore new frontiers. The space becomes a mausoleum for the sculpture Sabre, a work that, thanks to meticulous geometric and mathematical research, acquires an ethereal and mysterious quality. These studies allow the sculpture to give life to an interplay of reflected lights and shadows that suggest the flow of time—past, present, and future—inviting the viewer to confront the impossibility of fully grasping the essence of the future while remaining fascinated by it. The particular geometric shape and smooth surface, similar to Brâncuși’s Bird in Space, challenge perception, creating a sense of lightness and abstraction that contrasts sharply with the materiality of the First Generation, opening the visitor to a dreamlike dimension that will reach its peak in the next phase.

Third Room: Overcoming and Imagination

In the third room, the New Generation Bronze marks the final destination of a journey that synthesizes the previous oppositions, leading the visitor to a phase of absolute contemplation. The feeling of being in a cave intensifies and the visual experience becomes more intimate and engaging, pushing the observer to abandon traditional modes of art consumption. The space invites a deep and personal connection with the artwork, stimulating the imagination of its guest. In a process of continuous unveiling, seemingly simple details transform into a galaxy, a cosmos, or an extraterrestrial world: the work becomes the keeper of possible worlds that each observer explores according to their own sensitivity. This visual experience suggests that art, in its ability to evoke illusions, is— as Nietzsche would say—an indispensable lie that, transcending the rigidity of factual reality, gives meaning to life, making existence richer and deeper. Once the mystery of New Generation is revealed, the intent of Keil Space becomes clear: to lead the observer toward a higher understanding through a multisensory journey, where the dialectic between matter and immateriality culminates in a new and fascinating interpretation of the real.
Keil Space qualifies as a unique experience in the exhibition landscape, a space that subverts the conventions of traditional art exhibitions, offering a new way to live and appreciate art. Created to interrupt the automatism of everyday life, Keil Space opens a direct channel to those psycho-cognitive mechanisms that construct alternative worlds and act in a cathartic way. To date, around 600 people of different ages, professions and backgrounds have visited the space, a sign of its ability to attract a diverse audience. The experience is offered in a accessible and solitary way, a choice that reflects Keil Space’s goal of democratizing art (for a deeper understanding of the concept, reading Art as Experience by John Dewey is recommend), making it accessible to everyone and transforming it into a personal and authentic experience, far from any form of elitism. A crucial moment of this journey is the final interview, conceived to allow visitors to immediately process and verbalize what they have experienced, thus highlighting their active and participatory role. This step not only fosters a greater awareness of the experience but also makes clear the importance of the visitor as the protagonist of the dialogue and interpretation of art within the artistic space.
To fully experience this journey, visitors are advised to “let go” of their resistance to the dialectical path of the visit, avoiding unconscious blocks and embracing the experience without prejudices. In this way, the descent and ascent in Keil Space will transform into a journey of profound inner exploration.

References

• Dewey, J. (2007). Arte come esperienza, a cura di G. Matteucci, Aesthetica, Palermo, (Titolo originale Art as Experience, 1934)
  
  
• Platone (2007), La Repubblica, trad. it. di M. Vegetti, Rizzoli, Segrate.
  
  
• Nietzsche, F. (1997), La nascita della tragedia, trad. it. di S. Giammetta, Adelphi, Milano, (Titolo originale DieGeburt der Tragödie, 1872).