ALMAC'È, curated by Fabrizio Contarino, Espai Souvenir, Barcelona.

Almac’è is a play on words between the Spanish word “almacén” (“warehouse”) and the Italian verb “esserci”, it can be translated as “there is soul”. How to attribute subjectivity, understood as forms of characterisation, a continuity at the level of interiority or the presence of a vital force, to the objects recovered from the Espai Souvenir warehouse? The focus is placed on the agency of these elements to restore a sense of inner presence and own will. The ordinary perception of more or less everyday objects gives way to a more direct experience, as every time we are surprised to talk to the computer that crashes or the car we drive. Even today, in the rapid and interconnected scenario of turbocapitalism, faded forms of animism survive which, despite everything, allow us to imagine new relations between the human and non-human worlds.

CINQUE GNEFRI A ZONZO, curated by Antonio Rocca, Rocca Albornoz, Narni.

According to local popular tradition, the “gnefro” is a legendary shape-shifting creature, often described as a pixie, who is used to play tricks and pranks on wayfarers. It usually lives in small or large groups near the Marmore Waterfall, Piediluco Lake and along the Nera River, which flows a few steps away from the Fortress of Narni. This installation in the area of the gardens exploits the reflection of sunlight to recall the ethereal dimension of these elemental spirits. Cinque gnefri a zonzo invites to explore and observe with curiosity the space, understood both as architecture and as landscape, in search of the five sculptures and the pleasure of discovery. It is an exhortation to stop, to get out of the incessant productive time that is gradually colonizing leisure time and to enter a magical and playful dimension.

THROUGH THE UNKNOWN REMEMBERED GATE, curated by Massimo Bartolini, Giovanni Gamberi and Corrado Gagliano, Via del Guasto, Bologna.

Thanks to the contribution of archaeoacoustics, it was discovered that the specific architecture of ancient sacred sites was capable of channelling sound and directly influencing those present, inducing non-ordinary perceptions, visions and states of consciousness. The space under the grate in which the installation is located acts as a resonance chamber for the constant playing of tones between 90 and 120 Hz, the same frequency range found in numerous prehistoric places of worship. This particular spatial configuration can refer to the descent, from where one is to a deeper point in the underground, as well as its opposite, that is, an ascension of the subsurface and the non-visible which returns from under ground/under skin to recover a cosmic-animistic experience of the world and the natural environment.

WHEN AND WHERE I LOST MY OTHER EYE?, Cattedra Caccioni, ABABO Accademia di Belle Arti di Bologna.

This installation work attempts a new connotation of the pre-existing space, transforming it into a kind of aseptic laboratory in which an extraterrestrial discovery is quarantined and studied. What/who is alien if we drifted so far apart from nature that we came to objectify and analyse it in a cold and detached manner? The use of soil is a sign of a strong deconstruction to return to the essential and to reverse the movement towards alienation that the overload of impulses and information entails. It is an invitation to return to the earth, on the earth, in one’s humanity. The choice of blocking the fruition, suspending it and making the work located behind inaccessible, is intended to refer to the isolation required of the initiate, to preserve the subjective and personal sacredness of the inner dimension/time.

DEPENDENCE DAYS (ŻAVÂI SERIES), glass and wooden lantern, car air freshener, 27,5 × 12,5 × 12,5 cm.

PLASTIC HEARTBEAT (ŻAVÂI SERIES), wooden coffee grinder, power cable, 20 × 16 × 17 cm.

SELF PORTRAIT (ŻAVÂI SERIES), wooden hand plane, steel ball chain, steel bottle opener keyring, 45 × 7 × 10,5 cm.

THE ALEPH (ŻAVÂI SERIES), wooden chest, mirror, 9 × 13,5 × 5,5 cm.

LE FRAGOLE NON CRESCONO SOLO D'AUTUNNO, CambiaMenti Festival, DumBO, Bologna.

This work stems from the investigation of the processes of appropriation and commodification of natural resources implemented by global capitalism and their impact on the state of decay of the planet. Artistic production participates in the same logic of exploitation of the Earth. With Le fragole non crescono solo d’autunno, the artist intends to reflect on the possibility of operating in a sustainable way, perhaps this time uncovering less reassuring questions. Is sustainability still an aspiration? The archiving of past attempts and elements previously used in his installations, arranged around the platform of an underground floor scale, represent the contradictions between the purpose and the end of these now defunct presences. There remains the opportunity to say goodbye to everything that hoped not to end up like that.

VERSO CASA, curated by Danilo Paris and Nicola Nitido, Festa dell’arte nomadica, Chiesa di Santa Lucia, Ferentino.

Verso casa was made with the soil collected from the Ferentino countryside and it focuses on the story of the mystery of a forgotten world: the animistic world characterised by a numinous and kinaesthetic relationship with the natural environment. The work is placed in a space that no longer exists or in a time that is not yet. Its indeterminacy is not only temporal between a distant past and a possible near future, but also spatial: the installation is ideally located in a limbo halfway between the church and the mountain/forest. There is a strong correspondence between the ambiguity of the temporal and physical dimensions, which expand the space of fruition and ensure a multiple reading by the participating observer, who, depending on his or her personal experiences and perceptions, can choose the direction in which he or she wishes to return.

DECOLONIZING LOCAL SPOTS, curated by Carmen Lorenzetti, Opentour, Arco Iris R, Bologna.

While we witness the destruction of entire ecosystems in the form of exploitation and appropriation of natural resources, in its artistic representation and media communication nature appears healthy, lush and fertile. The reversal between reality and aesthetisation aims to draw attention to the damage that the technocapitalist system is causing to the planet. The indefiniteness of the biological processes of transformation that characterise the exhibition reflects the unpredictability of the effects of the environmental crisis, but also the ambiguous position that human beings are taking in this regard. The installation in the exhibition was accompanied by several side events of conviviality and sociability such as DJ sets, an episode of the Burro podcast, a final workshop and performative happenings in which sprouts and mushrooms grown spontaneously from the soil were donated to visitors.

IL CIELO DI INDRA (ŻAVÂI SERIES), wooden coffee grinder, silicone, 23,5 × 18 × 18 cm.

MON AMI HIBOU (ŻAVÂI SERIES), tree branch, polypropylene and steel clothespin, 49 × 101 × 100 cm.

KAIROS, lacquered wood, mirror, silicone, 53 × 23 × 4,5 cm.

UNE PIPE ET SON DOUBLE (ŻAVÂI SERIES), wooden pipe, polypropylene industrial scrap, 15 × 16 × 16 cm.

SOGNARE I BISCOTTI (ŻAVÂI SERIES), ceramic pod holder cup, wooden lamellas, dye for resin, water, 13 × 28 × 28 cm.

BIG BIC (ŻAVÂI SERIES), BIC lighters, finnboard, cardboard, 37 × 11,5 × 8 cm.