21 May 2023 > 15 October 2023
Isola della Certosa – Venezia
curated by Domitilla Dardi
Four installations created through an unconventional dialogue between artists, architects, designers, philosophers and botanists to tell the story of a place and its nature.
Andrea Anastasio with Angela Rui, Bêka&Lemoine with Stefano Mancuso and Studio Formafantasma with Emanuele Coccia.
For the occasion, the Alcantara-MAXXI Project also moved to Venice with the installation by Studio Ossidiana.
We are no longer allowed to be passive regarding the natural conditions surrounding us. The knowledge we can no longer afford to evade today is the environmental context we live in, and BioGrounds is a project that aims to activate this knowledge.
The idea was born from the union between environmental life (Bio) and the assonance with the term playground (Grounds), entrusting contemporary designers to create installations, devices and performances capable of telling the public the story of a place and its nature, involving visitors through actions and interventions.
The BioGrounds are conceived by designers – architects, artists, designers – in dialogue with theorists who are experts in ecological issues – philosophers, botanists, critics – and the optimal place for their realisation is the Island of Certosa in Venice, given its significant biodiversity. The works are designed to transform, live and grow old in the environment, as happens to every element marked by the passage of time. Observing their change is an integral part of active public enjoyment.
Invasi. Andrea Anastasio with Angela Rui
The terracotta pot is the first “home” created by man for a plant: this is were it germinates in the nursery and how it is transported to be planted. The pot, moreover, is one of the first artifacts of human history, present in all cultures of the world, a true archetype of human dwelling. Its circular shape recalls the cyclicity of nature itself, from the motion of the planets to animal conglomerations. In this project, a multitude of terracotta pots return to nature, going back to being vessels for plants and animals that will colonize them over time, spontaneously. Placing the pot back into nature, it returns to being a gestational womb, refuge, protection. The project develops on an amphibious area – woodland and lagoon – and is composed of stoneware pots and elements on which phrases are engraved, which for humans are readable as information referring to the environment, while for animals they will function as openings to transform the pots themselves into burrows.
Spaccasassi. Beka & Lemoine with Stefano Mancuso
The project is located in the ruins of the cloister of the ancient monastery of La Certosa and its protagonist is a tree, a nettle tree, which has sprouted spontaneously thanks to the residual waters of the well that once served the structure. This tree species is locally called “stonebreaker” for its prerogative to make its way even through the hard surface of roads and architectures imposed by man on nature. Its essence is therefore that of a resistant being, which survives the most hostile conditions: both those directly created by man with his artifacts, and the climatic ones caused by his actions. A series of performances will pay tribute to this tree that has given rise to some kind of myth due to its resistance skills. We are invited to sit, observe and listen to this symbol of natural resistance, with the attention we usually give to man-made works of art.
