“gli ambienti sono tanti quanti gli animali” 

J.J. Von Uexküll, 1934

On Sunday 13 October, the group exhibition umwelten - environments, curated by Valeria De Siero at the ‘La Giacinta’ Consortium, in the Veio Park area in Rome, opens to the public.

The title derives from a reading of the thought of Estonian biologist and zoologist Jacob J. von Uexküll, known for having introduced the concept of ‘umwelt’, a German word that can be translated as ‘environment’. In the context of the exhibition, the word is declined in the plural to emphasise the idea that each artist in the exhibition, while sharing the environment of the garden with the others, works according to the inclinations of his artistic research and his innenwelt (inner world), thus relating to the place according to his own sensitivity and perception. 

Francesca Romana Cicia (Rome, 1994) is a visual artist who currently lives and works in Rome, where she co-founded the artist-run space Condotto 48 and holds a diploma in Decoration from the Academy of Fine Arts. Her research reflects on the reception and resistance mechanisms of memory. Through painting, sculpture and installation he investigates the need to explore that hidden place that preserves the more or less legible fragments of experience. Blue becomes a metaphor for the mind, for silence, for hidden things. Exhibitions include: Si è seduto il vento, CityLab971, Rome, 2024; LIMEN, ExGarage, Rome, 2023; Materia Nova. Roma nuove generazioni a confronto, Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Rome, 2021.

Marco Fedele di Catrano (Rome, 1976) is an interdisciplinary artist trained in Rome, Vienna and Zurich and currently living and working in Lisbon. His work in the fields of installation, photography, sculpture and video is characterised by an intuitive handling of materials, objects and spaces. In many cases, he elaborates found and elementary materials that are reconfigured into a synthetic and metaphorical form, with the aim of linking it to subjects of existential and socio-political relevance. Exhibitions include: Conexo, Convexo, Côncavo, Escola Das Artes, Lisbon, 2024; Gridlines, Künstquartier Bethanien, Berlin, 2024, There is no place like home, Rome, 2021.

Alberto Emiliano Durante (Rome, 1977) is an artist who graduated in sculpture from the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome with a thesis on ritual sacrifice and artistic representation. He trained as a sculptor in Spain, Greece and Friuli Venezia Giulia. His works evoke archaic symbols, myths and figures, re-proposed in a contemporary vision where linearity and symmetry predominate. The archaic returns, therefore, through a structural simplification that gives the creations expressive immediacy. Exhibitions: Maschera, Struttura, Rome, 2023; La fonte dell'opera, Rome, 2022; Bones, ADD Art, Spoleto, 2018

Anica Huck (Erfurt, Germany, 1985) is a visual artist and performer who lives and works in Rome, where she attended the RUFA Academy. Her interdisciplinary practice, rooted in a background in geosciences and geopolitics, addresses contemporary issues such as climate politics and digitalisation. He explores the link between man and space, using scientific and visual methods to create transitional works that invite reflection on how we perceive and construct our place in the world. Exhibitions include: Contemporary Art Prize, Palazzo Ducale Orsini Colonna, Tagliacozzo, 2023; Cortile della Memoria, Museo Vite di IMI, Rome, 2023, Outermost Region, Curva Pura, Rome, 2023.

Daniela D'Amore (Caserta, 1989) is a visual artist who lives and works between Naples and Lecce. She trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples and the Uniwersytet Artystyczny w Poznaniu, in Poznań, Poland. She uses, among other media, video, performance, drawing, sculpture, to investigate and analyse cognitive mechanisms and reference maps to orientate oneself in the world, grasping the human being in his relationship with the other from himself and with the environment. Exhibitions include: dove le dune, Red Lab Gallery, Lecce, 2024; Premio Francesco Fabbri, Pieve di Soligno, 2023; Unearthed/Dissotterrato, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Giudecca/Venice, 2023.

Giulia Manfredi (Castelfranco Emilia (MO), 1984) graduated in painting from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna with a thesis on new media and satellite technology. Until 2014 she lived in Berlin where she attended courses in visual communication and fine arts at the Universität der Künste and collaborated with an artists' collective in organising projects and exhibitions. In his work, organic matter, often represented by bonsai trees, is combined with materials such as inlaid marble and technologies such as 3D printing and laser, thus relating order and moving forms. Exhibitions include: dove le dune, Red Lab Gallery, Lecce, 2024; Duale, Contemporary Cluster Palazzo Brancaccio, Rome, 2023; Genetica della forma, Palazzo Collicola, Spoleto, 2022

Emanuela Moretti (Tagliacozzo (AQ), 1990) graduated in Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Frosinone. Her artistic practice focuses on the transformation and reinterpretation of the domestic environment and the urban landscape, investigating the link between the human body and its intimate space, both in its real and hyperreal aspect. The works are distinguished by the juxtaposition of metals, organic elements such as soap and body parts extracted from the digital context, giving rise to prostheses that interweave structures and limbs, creating singular grafts. Exhibitions include; Premio Fregellae, Palazzo Ferrari, Ceprano, 2024; XXXIV Biennale d'arte contemporanea di Alatri, 2024; Accade!, La Nuova Pesa, Roma, 2023.

Cristallo (Rome, 1981) graduated from the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. In Rome, the city where he currently lives, he founded Struttura in 2022. His research explores the contrast between fluid and geometric lines, representing the opposition between artifice and nature. in his pictorial work, he favours the use of neutral bases to eliminate distractions and encourage innate perception, highlighting the anti-emotional specificity of depersonalisation and the dualism between positive and negative spaces. He has recently exhibited in the following shows: MVM, Struttura, Rome, 2024; Lezioni di Resistenza, Spazio Y, Rome, 2024; L'Impresa e l'Opera, Galleria La Nuvola, Rome, 2023.

Agnese Spolverini (Viterbo, 1994) is a visual artist whose work is composed of a stratification of languages and techniques. Her research attempts to open dialogues and empathic connections between the public and the work; each work is an attempt to construct a mysterious, ambiguous whole that attracts and seeks to involve the observer on a sensorial and emotional level. He investigates, among other things, ecological issues, in territorial and non-territorial research, with an eye always turned to the intimate and political spheres of human animals. His projects include: Rural Visions, Bando Lazio Contemporaneo, in progress; Chì ghe pù Nissun!, Fondazione Elpis, Milan, 2023; Badly Buried, Palazzo Re Rebaudengo, Guarene (CN), 2021.

Stefano Ventilii (Sant'Omero (TE), 1997) graduated in Visual Arts at the L'Aquila Academy of Fine Arts. His production spans different media, from installation to painting to poetic text, questioning disciplines such as history, geography, anthropology, geopolitics and genealogy. In his work, a decisive role is played by architectural and non-architectural space and by geographical and genealogical mappings, aimed at identifying boundaries, limits, unions and legacies in the world and between people. Since 2022 he has been a member of the Officine Brandimarte space in Ascoli Piceno. Exhibitions include: Il resto è per i pazzi (The rest is for the mad), Officine Brandimarte, Ascoli Piceno, 2024; Murato fuori non vi feci caso. Sguardi sul confine-Paratissima, Cavallerizza Reale, Turin, 2023; Prova Generale, Museolaboratorio, Città Sant'Angelo, 2022.

EXHIBITION

umwelten - ambienti

with Francesca Romana Cicia, Marco Fedele Di Catrano, Alberto Emiliano Durante, Daniela D’Amore, Anica Huck, Giulia Manfredi, Emanuela Moretti, Cristallo, Agnese Spolverini, Stefano Ventilii

curated by Valeria De Siero

at Consorzio “La Giacinta”, Via della Giustiniana 959, Rome

13 October to 10 November 2024

Open by appointment by contacting valeriadesiero@gmail.com