Naturae is a research project coordinated by Urbanautica Institute delving into photography as a medium for expressing the complexity of human actions through the observation of nature and its elements. There is a desire to go beyond the documentation of human-induced changes upon nature and the critical aspects of this difficult coexistence. There is a desire to move the gaze toward new forms of naturalness distinctive of contemporary life, on the many “natures” formed by a mixture of randomness and artifice, on the independent bodies in constant mutation, which brings with it a vision of possible scenarios. A story purged of melancholy interpretations of the lost landscape and without holistic references or contemplative endings. The nature that still matters is the one that serves as a background for tracing a map that gives guidance to human behaviors increasingly disoriented and frantic.
In 2010 Urbanautica Institute has curated and produced the first edition of Naturae’s exhibition and catalog. The exhibition included projects by photographers: Aleix Plademunt, Alejandro Cartagena, Guido Castagnoli, Anne Lass, Karin Borghouts, Hin Chua, Michael De Kooter, Dustin Shum. The exhibition was launched at Savignago Immagini Festival, and then housed at the Palladian Basilica in Vicenza and at Benetton Foundation. Info here
In 2013 Steve Bisson director of Urbanautica Institute was invited, by the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina in Serbia, to curate a new edition of Naturae. The theme of the research is the “Experience of Space”. Perception, as a term, suggests more of a physiological mechanism of seeing and observing while experience has a strong component of personalized interpretation and emotions related to what we see Researching how the manner of representation influences the way we experience space (specifically, the landscape) through photography as a media. Photographers included in the exhibition: Jordi Huisman, Dustin Shum, Geoffroy Mathieu , David Pollock, Paolo Fusco, Dusan Rajic, Juan Margolles, Mustafah Abdulaziz, Ryan Debolski, Sérgio Ronaldo. Info here
