Rethinking Nature. Curated by  Kathryn Weir with the associate curator Ilaria Conti. Madre – Fondazione Donnaregina per le arti contemporanee, museo d’arte contemporanea Donnaregina, Naples. 12.17.2021 – 05.02.2022

The exhibition Rethinking Nature, curated by the Museum’s Artistic Director Kathryn Weir, together with Associate Curator Ilaria Conti, addresses the theme of political ecology understood as the need to build new relationships between human beings and the ecosystem of which they are a part of.

In this exhibition, which included 40 artists and artistic collectives, Gianfranco Baruchello was invited to exhibit Agricola Cornelia S.p.A. (1973-1981), the long-term work which constitutes one of the fields in which he has worked most: the relationship with nature, the environment, plants, and animals.

The room dedicated to Baruchello included three showcases/archives Agricola Cornelia (1-2-3), with materials, documents, organic and inorganic objects, organised according to three themes: food, politics, and animal & vegetable. Questio de aqua et terra (industrial enamels on aluminum in four elements), the series Progetto Kanak (Magie agricole, Magie idrauliche, Magie alimentari, Magie politico-sindacali) inspired by the holistic vision of the Kanak culture of New Caledonia, Agricola Cornelia IV. Vue à vol d’oiseau de l’ensemble (industrial enamels on cardboard) in which Baruchello notes the agricultural use of the land dedicated to his long project, four pieces from the series Costruire una torre al mattino con materiali trovati, and sculptures created through a daily exercise of collecting discarded materials, in which Baruchello combines individual sensitivity and radical imagination to construct new forms of living, all formed part of this exhibition.