Fabio Marullo and Alessandra Piolotto
Nell’invisibile presenza
2024
40 silk flags
Each 70 x 50 cm
Courtesy of the artists.
Created with the technical support of Mantero Seta S.p.a., Como.
“In the Invisible Presence” is an environmental installation composed of 40 silk flags, set up in a section of the bamboo grove in the Boschetto (or Arboretum) area of the Botanical Garden, which is home to around 200 tree species. The flags, created by the artists in two versions, are anchored to the upper part of the bamboo culms and feature images of shapes derived from observing lichens under a microscope. The installation is positioned in a part of the Arboretum exposed to air currents, and through the movement of the flags, it evokes the dispersal of spores carried by the wind.
The silk prints were created using pink and purplish pigments to reference the dyeing properties of the pigment extracted from the Roccella Tinctoria lichen.
Outil visuel [symbiosis archive], designed by Alessandra Piolotto, features violet-silver hues inspired by the observation of spores and siliceous diatoms under the microscope. The pinkish-hued version, Untitled, created by Fabio Marullo, reflects the irregularity of shapes observed under the microscope through the repetition of an imperfect circular element.
The flags were conceived by the artists as a representation of invisible landscapes. The textile printing was made possible thanks to the contribution of the textile company Mantero Seta S.p.A. from Como.
Fabio Marullo
“non sfugge al mio animo ch’è difficile dar luce”
2024
LED
15,41 x 7,41 x 3,90 cm
Courtesy of the artist.
“non sfugge al mio animo ch’è difficile dar luce” is an environmental installation conceived by Fabio Marullo specifically for the space of the Propagation Greenhouse, a place dedicated to nurturing the seeds of annual plants. The artwork consists of the diffusion of artificial yellow light. The choice of this color lies in its complementarity with the purplish hue derived from the Roccella tinctoria lichen, evoking its dyeing properties.
“non sfugge al mio animo ch’è difficile dar luce” internally envelops the Propagation Greenhouse, transforming its architecture, characterized by semi-transparent glass panels, into a fluorescent body that can also be perceived from the outside.
Fabio Marullo
Babricare
2024
Glazed terracotta
83 x 33 x 21 cm
Courtesy of the artist.
Babricare is a sculpture made of glazed terracotta. The subject, a headless figure characterized by a thick, curly beard, is inspired by a statue from the sculptural cycle of the Neptune fountain in the Grand Rondeau of Villa della Regina in Turin. The 17th-century fountain features Neptune at its center and a series of twelve river deities along the perimeter of the marble basin. The headless deity identified by Fabio Marullo, seated in a relaxed position on the edge of the fountain, is reinterpreted by the artist here as lying down on a plane specifically designed for the exhibition.
The curls of the beard evoke a plant-like organism, a root, or the structure of certain types of lichens. The glaze applied to the surface of the sculpture gives it a rust-like color, lending it the appearance of an artifact retrieved from water. The choice to alter the color through glazing also recalls the oxidizing effects of certain phytotoxic pollutants present in the atmosphere on architecture and monuments. This aspect references the role lichens can play as bioindicators in air quality monitoring studies.
The exhibition investigates the concepts of symbiosis and mutability of forms, starting from the microscopic observation of lichens that live on some of Turin’s architecture and record invisible aspects of the environment that hosts them. The project intends to propose an alternative vision of the relationship between man and nature through the investigation of less predictable aspects of reality, such as the luminous frequencies emitted by lichens observed under the microscope and the colours obtained from the extraction of their pigments.