Naturalia et artificialia | Focus 1

About

As linked to the mission of IPERCUBO and to the research of the roaster of artists as it is, the exhibition intends to continue deconstructing the false dichotomy of the divide between nature and technology, as well as to further explore how the featured artists address these topics.

Naturalia et artificialia | Focus 1 picks up on the homonymous exhibition curated by ECCENTRIC Art & Research in 2016, inaugurating a loose series of shows with the aim of spotlighting the research of the selected artists  regarding the current discussions on the relationships between humans with other living beings, with technology,  and, more broadly, with the ways in which the world is created and impacted by each one of its inhabitants.

Naturalia and artificialia were both of the categories with which the wonders exhibited in the cabinets of curiosities during the Renaissance were classified: objects which belonged to the domain of Nature, such as fossils of exotic animals, curious stones, and the like; or otherwise, wonders produced by the hand of human beings.

In the context of this exhibition naturalia and artificialia are not so much categories with which to classify objects but, more likely, concepts that work as the common thread that brings together the diverse topics addressed by the featured artists and artworks. All of them, in one way or the other, pose questions about issues that have to do either with nature, or with artifice and technology,  often with both, at the same time that they put into question this same apparent opposition: Because there is no nature without artifice—without the artificial filter of culture—nor technology or artifice which doesn’t participate of nature. In this sense, the romantic conception of Nature as a virgin realm can be considered to be over in the same way that the conception of human beings as the centre of the universe is over too.

Ivana Adaime Makac’s work is a continuous investigation in constant mutation in which one artwork is linked to the others, both conceptually and materially. This principle informs Jardin des Revenants, the installation presented at the exhibition, an ongoing project that started around 10 years ago for which the artist started putting away all the organic and inorganic rests of her works. These rests gain new “life” as they become part of new works, replicating in a certain sense the cycles of life with this operation of “upcycling” and “composting”.  At the same time that, with this process, Jardin des Revenants brings the rests close to the status of reliquie, giving them not only a new life, but also a new value. They are presences of the past in current projects.

In Stefano Cerio’s Aquila series, photography is used to document an installation, a performance, in which inflatable objects are placed in the landscape around L’Aquila, in the region of Abruzzo and portraited: a church, a house, a slide. The artist intends to evoke a sense of estrangement and provoke reflection about the feelings of abandonment and the strong desire for rebirth in the very places that were so severely affected by the seismic events that occurred between 2009 and 2012. He accomplishes this by photographing these structures as they gradually come to life, removed from their usual context.The process of inflating each object is documented in a video, it is a fundamental part of the project and is also present in the show. 

Axel Straschnoy’s work explores through a great diversity of media and types of projects the relationships between narrative, scientific knowledge and the constructions and perceptions of “truth”. Kilpisjärvellä (in Kilpisjärvi) (2012) is a film for planetariums, and a photo series. It tells the story of 2 explorers who travel to north Lapland to record the Northern Lights. The film is shot in time lapse, with an extreme wide angle lens, which gives it a peculiar look. The Northern Lights are an usual subject in planetariums. However, they are mostly treated in a scientific manner and the point of view of the camera recording them is abstract. Kilpisjärvellä presents the Northern Lights in the context in which they can be seen, including the nature, the weather and the time it takes to travel there.  The Planetarium Film Tests images series come from the trip to northern lapland to perform a series of tests towards the shooting of a planetarium film, while the Planetarium Stills images series presented in Naturalia et artificialia were made during the production of Kilpisjärvellä. Both the film and the photo series explore new forms of representation and of narrative in the representation of natural phenomena making evident the intertwinement between the documented subject, the narrative built upon it and the apparatuses through which these are produced.

IPERCUBO takes the occasion to invite you to the presentation of Stefano Cerio’s artist book Aquila (Hatje Cantz Verlag) at Triennale di Milano on February 11th, 2023.

Artists’ bios:

Ivana Adaime Makac studied art history in Universidad de Buenos Aires, and she obtained her diploma (DNSEP) at École supèrieure d’art des Pyrénées in 2006 and a MA art research at Université Paris-Panthéon Sorbonne in 2010. Her work has been exhibited in France, Argentina, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Canada, United States, Libya and China. Solo shows include Ateliers vortex, Dijon, France (2015); Centre d’art  contemporain de Pontmain, France (2012); Centre d’art contemporain du  Luxembourg Belge, Montauban-Buzenol (2011); La chambre blanche, Quebec,  Canada (2008); Ancient French consulate of Tripoli, Libya (2004);  Galeria de la Alianza Francesa Central, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2002). Among the group shows she participated in (selection): Pages Blanches, interdisciplinary project curated by Alice et caetera,  Art Gallery of Nanjing University, China (2019); Domande sul vivente,  curated by Gabriela Galati in Milan, Italy (2018);  All  around Us, curated by Ali Momeni, Wood street Galleries, Pittsburg, USA  (2017); Enchanter le réel, curated by Claire Lambert, Le bel ordinaire,  Billière, France (2017); Naturalia et artificialia, curated by ECCENTRIC  Art & Research, Superstudio, Milan, Italy (2016), Pages blanches,  La place, Barcelona, Spain(2015); Cabinet de curiosités, Naturalia,  Vol.2, curated by Raphael Rivoire, Artothèque de Saint Priest, France  (2013); Spécimens, curated by Projet COAL, Domaine de Chamarande, France  (2012); Une mouche dans la tête, curated by Virginie Bourget, Clisson,  France (2012); PI, Paysage invisible, curated by Hervé Vachez, Gallerie  Satellite, Paris (2011); Salon de Montrouge #55, curated by Stéphane Corréard, France (2010); Flux-2, Curated by Centre d’art Georges Pompidou, Cajarc, France (2007);  Accès(s) Festival cultures électroniques, Pau, France (2007); À suivre,  Le bbb, Toulouse, France (2006).

Stefano Cerio has been researching on photography and video since 2001. Among the many exhibitions and projects featuring his work, are worth mentioning: Machine Man project at Lattuada Studio in Milan, 2004;  Codice Multiplo solo exhibition at Città della Scienza (City of Science) Naples, 2005;  an installation for the Porte del Mediterraneo, Piemonte Region, Rivoli, 2008;  Sintetico italiano solo exhibition at the charterhouse of San Giacomo, Capri, 2009;  two shows at the Galerie Italienne in Paris, 2010; ’O Vero. Napoli nel mirino group exhibition at Madre Museum in Naples, 2010;  Winter Aquapark at  Forma Foundation in Milan, 2011;  Summer Aquapark video screening at MAXXI Museum, Rome, 2011;  Night Ski series,  Studio Trisorio in Naples, 2012 (with Vice Versa catalogue published by Contrasto); Chinese Fun at Fondazione Volume, Rome together with the publication of the book  by Hatje Cantz, 2015; Night Games solo show at  Centro Italiano per la Fotografia – Camera in Turin, and Hatje Cantz published the catalogue, 2017;  major retrospective to Cerio’s work at Pignatelli Museum – Casa della fotografia in Naples, 2018;   Constructions Instables at Italian Institute of Culture in Paris, 2019. The Aquila project is the result of commission by MAXXI Museum in L’Aquila, and a selection of photographs from this series have become part of the permanent collection of MAXXI Museum in Rome. He  works and lives between Rome and Paris.

Axel Straschnoy’s long-term and research-focused projects include Devils of Paasselkä, 2021, The Permian Projects (2019-21), The Finnish Astronautical Society, 2019-ongoing, Float (2018), Etsiva (The Detective) (2017) Kilpisjärvellä (2011-12) a planetarium film on exploration in northern Lapland under the Northern Lights (Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Mirta Demare Gallery, Rotterdam), La Figure de la Terre (2014) a short film based on the book The Figure of the Earth by 18th century French mathematician and explorer Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (Galería del Infinito, Buenos Aires; Museo del Cine, Buenos Aires) and the lecture-performance series, Notes on the Double Agent (2013-ongoing). For Neomylodon Listai Ameghino (2015), he has followed the Neomylodon’s trail back to its cave in Last Hope Sound, Southern Chilean Patagonia, and is in the midst of a multi-part, traveling exhibition to bring the Neomylodon’s remains back together one hundred and twenty years since its discovery (Galleria Augusta, Helsinki; Evolutionsmuseet, Uppsala). Other exhibitions and screenings include: Amos Rex (2022), Inter Arts Center (2022), Forum Box (2022), Turku Arts Museum (2021);  Kiasma Art Museum (2017); Emerging Media Artists (2014), Edith-Russ-Haus, Oldenburg, Opening Archive, Ateneum Museum Library, Helsinki (2013), Fulldome Festival, Zeiss Planetarium, Jena, Flaherty Seminar, Colgate University, Hamilton and Melbourne International Film Festival, Melbourne. Straschnoy has participated in Le Pavillon residency at Palais de Tokyo (2008-09) and trained in Art History at University of Buenos Aires.

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