IL VIAGGIO DELLE PIANTE

Year: 2024

Place: Museo Della Frutta Francesco Garnier Valletti, Torino

Curator: Domenico Maria Papa

Works:
Roots and branches
Mondi Vicini
Il viaggio delle piante

Created specifically for the Art Site Fest, which has the 2024 theme 'Living Beings,' under the artistic direction of Domenico Papa.
The exhibition features three different works: two installations and a series titled Il viaggio delle piante which gives its name to the exhibition. The entire exhibition pays homage to South American biodiversity and botanical tradition through botanical watercolors.
Roots and Branches is a tangle of roots that insinuate themselves out of or assault a table with research elements. The roots symbolize stability and belonging, and in this case, they stand out to take center stage.
Nearby Worlds is the next installation where exuberant vegetation attempts to make its way through a door. This suggests that in the face of human limits, plants find their space, creating a vegetative cascade reminiscent of a wild garden, formed by acanthus leaves.

The series that names the exhibition can be seen in three rooms of the museum, weaving among reproductions of fruits. This series is a dialogue and reinterpretation of the drawings from the Royal Botanical Expedition to the New Kingdom of Granada (Colombia, 1783-1817). These drawings represent a contribution to the understanding of South American biodiversity and were created under the direction of botanist José Celestino Mutis. Aro created a series of gouaches on paper, primarily using burgundy, a color that enhances the formal beauty of the depicted plants. Aro drew inspiration from Mutis's style, characterized by its central composition and balance between scientific research and aesthetic appeal. Indeed, Mutis did not merely depict plants with scientific rigor; he also sought to highlight their beauty, giving his illustrations an independent artistic value.

In this work, the artist aims to navigate between scientific precision and artistic sensitivity that pays tribute to the flora of the New World and to the tradition of those indigenous artists who contributed to documenting biodiversity. In this way, these drawings seek to restore dignity and centrality to a botanical heritage that belongs both to the history and present of Colombia and South America.