There is currently no established scientific explanation for the origin of water on Earth. Whether generated by shattering comets, or meteorites crash-landing, or volcanic explosions in ancient times, in the collective imagination its presence evokes the mythological moment of creation that in our mind’s eye contains infinite potential, the potential for everything to exist. The paintings in Fabio Marullo’s project Figuration Plants visually evoke this element of unpredictability, creating a seemingly monochrome world inhabited by mysterious forms and traces; clues that hint at a unique path between stasis and dynamism, tension and metamorphosis. These opposing forces can be observed in the artist’s ambiguous clay sculptures inspired by the plant Puya Raimondii Harms, native to Peru and likened to a living fossil. In his visual and formal research in the arena of general biology, with forays into mycology and entomology, Marullo explores the possible existence of other primitive forms capable of modifying the environment, and their own capacity for transformation.

For the project Equorea (of seas, ice, clouds and other waters) presented in BUILDINGBOX, Marullo presents a painting, Nebula (2019), accompanied by a sculpture, Ciò che di misterioso è palpabile [The Tangible in the Mysterious] (2016), presented in a display whose form recalls those in natural history museums.