Modern Automata Museum

The automata are small mechanical sculptures of paper, wood and metal, which are set in motion by visitors to the Museum. The museum contains about 200 automata made ??by Japanese, American, German, English, French, Canadian, South American and Italian artists. Some 100 works are on permanent display in the Museum of Montopoli di Sabina, while the other half of the collection is an itinerant museum that travels to public and private facilities on request. Modern automata can be compared to Japanese haiku, which are defined as "a small view of the world in three short lines". Modern automata can be defined as "a small view of the world at the turn of a handle." The hint of irony in the automata, combined with the mechanical inventions that permit movement, generate an artistic interest in visitors to the Museum and a stimulus for knowledge of mechanics that often leads them to a desire to grapple with the construction of their own automata. The Museum organises guided tours, courses for the construction of automata for teenagers and adults held by the artists themselves, and produces educational materials, videos and books. The site of the museum is part of the structure of the small ninth century castle of Vezzano, in the town of Montopoli di Sabina, in northern Lazio.