IL FUOCO DELLA NATURA/THE FLASH OF NATURE

In Trieste is opening an exhibition entirely dedicated to Nature, it sees artists and architects, from all over the world, portraying they’re images of what surround us.

Il Fuoco della Natura / The Flash of Nature features paintings, photographs, sculptures, videos and installations by 82 contemporary artists coming from 18 different countries (Australia, Chile, Cuba, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Japan, Macedonia, Mexico, The Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and USA). In essence, through a sequence of sublime images, The Flash of Nature, an exhibition promoted and realized by the Cultural Department of the City Council of Trieste, curated by Marco Puntin and Jonathan Turner, presents present-day symbols of the force and the beauty of Mother Nature, at this time of environmental uncertainty and climate change.

This exhibition looks at the many aspects of nature, both from the perspective of long geographical distances and in magnified close-up. It includes spectacular landscapes from around the globe depicting tropical rainforests in Latin America, the Arctic seas, the Australian bush, the Californian desert, and mountain ranges from the Dolomites and the Himalayas to Mount Fuji.

Through the eyes of artists, we see animals, plants and the natural world in all its splendor, beauty, power and perfection. The choice of the theme was determined by the conviction that Nature as a subject represents the ideal mediation between the art world and the viewing public. Realistic imagery produced by contemporary artists provides an instantly recognizable map of the natural world, free from changes in fashion or the technological input of man.

Evolution has its own slow pace, but man’s intervention with nature can be sudden, radical, disruptive and sometimes seemingly permanent. But nature can bounce back in surprising ways. So, alongside the aesthetic criteria behind the selection of specific paintings, photographs, installations and videos, in The Flash of Nature, we pose ethical questions directly linked to the works exhibited. We look at how we continue to consume and eradicate endangered species for food, clothing and medicinal purposes. The images of nature are perfect, while the implications of our ability to pollute and destroy are infinite.

Beginning with three iconic black-and-white landscapes by Ansel Adams, the exhibition includes the historical presence of such masters of photography as Robert Mapplethorpe, Gianni Berengo Gardin, Franco Fontana and Mario Giacomelli. As the show progresses, it is divided into sub-themes, including different sections dedicated to the ocean, winter landscapes, flowers and volcanoes (as represented in a painting by Cristiano Pintaldi, a graphic work by Julian Opie and a photograph by Nan Goldin).

Given the immense size of the ex-Pescheria, the two curators Marco Puntin and Jonathan Turner have taken the decision to focus on presenting large-scale works. The works selected come from important private collections, art galleries and in some cases, directly from the artist’s studio.

The exhibition has been installed in an open architectural labyrinth designed by Gian Paolo Vernier and Luigi Semerani from ell(E)gi Architecture, Trieste.

The design features three pavilions constructed below the cast-iron girders of the vast space of the former Pescheria (fish markets) in the waterfront of Trieste. One pavilion is dedicated to the theme of animals, including “portraits” created in different techniques: a chimpanzee (Andrew Zuckerman), a shark (Robert Longo), a horse (Albano Guatti), a snake (Daniel & Geo Fuchs), a deer (Santiago Ydáñez), a chihuahua (Gabriele Bonato), a tuna (Luigi Serafini), a panda (Antonio Riello) and a Wunderkammer of embalmed beasts (Francesca Martinelli).

Another pavilion is dedicated to the majesty of mountain landscapes: the Dolomites (Olivo Barbieri, Riccarda De Eccher, Giorgia Fiorio), a sacred mountain in Tibet (Monika Bulaj), a glacier in Chile (Luca Campigotto) and peaks in Argentina (Michael Najjar).

The third pavilion is devoted to film projections by two artistic duos, Masbedo and Allora & Calzadilla, the latter who represented America in the national pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale. Their works are among the few on show that include the human presence, so this third pavilion is like entering a separate house, where the viewer inside looks through windows to the world outside, at the surrounding nature. Upstairs in the ex-Pescheria, the auditorium will be used to project a series of video works by Alfredo Jaar (Chile) and Ana Mendieta (Cuba), coming from the prestigious La Gaia Collection in Busca.

The Flash of Nature also features works by the American masters of Pop Art Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist and Jim Dine, British art stars Mat Collishaw, Darren Almond and Marc Quinn, such “wild-cards” as Russian Oleg Kulik, Macedonian Robert Gligorov, and the Americans Ed Ruscha, Bill Beckley and Andres Serrano, the Dutchman Anton Corbijn, and Germans Elger Esser and Julian Rosefeldt.

These days, while most environmental news is marked by tragedy, several works show nature valiantly fighting back – Massimo Crivellari’s photographs of the forest slowly growing back over the venues built for the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina, Stefano Scheda’s images of wild plants reclaiming an abandoned house, and Giacomo Costa’s massive lightbox showing a jungle strangling architectural ruins, previously exhibited in the Italian pavilion at the 2009 Venice Biennale.

Il fuoco della Natura / The Flash of Nature

12.02.2012 – 09.04.2012

salone degli incanti – ex pescheria

riva nazario sauro, 1 trieste

time

monday to friday

11 am – 1 pm / 4 – 8 pm

saturday, sunday and public holidays

10 am – 8 pm

tickets

adults 6,00 €

concessions 4,00 €

free up to 14 years

info & contacts

tel. +39 040 3226862

info_expescheria@comune.trieste.it

www.triestecultura.it

press office

atemporarystudio

di samantha punis e giovanna felluga

tel. +39 040 413634

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