Gallery 205

From the second half of the 20th century, artists from around the world have recognized and represented the impact of climate change on global culture. Certain artists, early messengers of this emergency, convey their awareness of this ecological imbalance with near prophetic force, urging us to change our perspective. Works that tend to disintegrate or blend into the natural environment express concern for ecosystems and the fact that human actions are indissociable from them. Experiences constructed or imagined with the body, on earth and with earth, articulate a material truth contrary to conventional notions of posterity or cultural heritage. The creation of ephemeral works, of gestures that disappear into the landscape, merges with the production of anti-monumental sculptures made of sand, soil, or straw. Some of the historical works in the exhibition have been produced shortly before the show’s opening with locally-sourced materials. Although conceived in different times and contexts, these pieces express a shared sense of urgency and newness, in the here and now. Practices that intertwine knowledge and ritual turn a spotlight on encounters between botany, biology, and spirituality.