Eight Forays on Planet Earth
Biodiversity is a hyperobject – enormous, ubiquitous, unpredictable, and still largely unknown. We are an integral part of it.
The exhibition is part of the 24th Milan Triennale Inequalities and it’s presented as a journey into biodiversity through eight immersive stations that tell the stories of cities and communities around the world. Each station leads to a sensory immersion and recounts a key concept of biodiversity through stories whose central theme is the possible co-evolution of human activities and ecosystems.
The exhibition is therefore a journey through the hyperobject of biodiversity, represented by a light, enveloping, and complex aluminium structure that brings brings together its different sections. Inside, we share negative emotions. Today, we're destroying biodiversity at a rate comparable to five great mass extinctions that shook the planet millions of years ago. The causes are well known: deforestation, invasive species, human population growth, pollution, overexploitation of resources – all worsened by anthropogenic global warming.
We have thought of biodiversity as a hyperobject, according to Timothy Morton's definition: something too wide and complex to be understood in its totality, which involves us strongly but remains, in part, elusive. The hyperstructure is made of standard aluminium extrusions, a huge metal elephant in the room. We imagined this infrastructure as a trellis that supports everything – content, technology and people – in one big system: a palimpsest that will limit volume, transport and environmental impact.
The intervention is integrated into the spaces of Triennale to accompany the visitor in an accessible experience, where each content finds its own space.
The eight immersive environments conceived by curator Telmo Pievani that narrate biodiversity consist of surfaces, objects and data; these three elements, configured in different ways, will be attached to the structure by a mechanical fastening.
The materials of the assembly are provided by Nolostand, and at the end, will return to their storage without being modified or processed.
Every station consists of a selection of materials, which are part of the content and at the same time a manifesto that tries to stage the four directions that – we hope – will characterise the future of design.
Recycling: materials obtained from recycling, second raw material, such as panels made from fabric scraps (Nazena) and wood (Gruppo Saviola)
Biobased: materials based on algae (Seawood Materials), bioplastic based on cochineal produced by insects (Ori Orisun) and materials based on mycelium (SQUIM/Mogu)
Longlasting: materials that have always existed and will always exist, made to last, such as steel and terracotta (Terraformae)
Recovery and reused materials: recovered and put back into circulation in the city (Spazio Meta) and briccola wood from Venice, natural materials recovered and worked with artisan knowledge (De Zotti)
Each of the eight cities presents a content that we called “Sentinel”, inherent to the scientific concept addressed by curator Telmo Pievani. Antennas that connect the exhibition with places outside the Triennale. They are bridges to external environments, the expansion of the hyperobject, tentacles that connect places and people.
Serving the sections of the exhibition, they bear witness to what is happening outside the walls and the exhibition. In a way, they enhance the immersive experience of the exhibition spaces through sounds, images, data, information, etc. They create a sensory extension of the stations.
Each sentinel makes a journey through the server and is then brought back into the corresponding stations in real time. The graphic visualisation of the screens is realised in collaboration with Propp.
At the end, it's asked to choose to approve or reject the Constitution of the Earth, a visionary yet indispensable text written by the jurist Luigi Ferrajoli, with everyone participating by casting their vote. This passage is proposed as an invitation to a final reflection that takes place in the last station dedicated to Fungi, which represent one of the least understood aspects of global biodiversity.
Telmo Pievani
Massimo Labra e Maria Chiara Pastore (National Biodiversity Future Center)
Alessandro Mason, Alice Cazzolato, Pietro Lora, Kasina Arunchaipong, Margherita Segatta
Nolostand, Davide Biancucci, Violaine Buet, Marino Capitanio, Max Casacci, Marco Cazzato, Marta Cuscunà, Luigi Ferrajoli, Elio Ferrario, Peter Godfrey-Smith, Gianni Maroccolo, Lorenzo Possenti, Studio SS16, Wim Van Egmond, Paola Villani, Studio Propp, Seawood Materials, Terraformae, Spazio Meta, De Zotti Design, Nazena, SQIM/Mogu, Gruppo Saviola
Marco Cappelletti Studio