The perceptions of nature

La natura percepita

2023 - Exhibition and catalogue design project

La natura percepita is an exhibition design project based on the concepts of art and nature. The project stems from a deep analysis regarding nature and how it has been intertwined with the art of the last century, in a continuous exchange of new visions and interpretations. After designing the curatorial part of the exhibition, a temporary exhibition design project was developed within the structure of Fabbrica del Vapore, an exhibition center and creative hub in Milan.

The exhibition collection

The exhibition aims to study the process of natural abstraction. It is thus divided into six categories, corresponding to six different perceptions of nature: unconventional perception, the first section, deals with nature observed from forgotten viewpoints and brought into focus by the artist; the sensory perception includes works aimed at stimulating the spectators senses by recreating specific and highly sensorial environments, while the third category, altered perception, is focused on a visual reality that deviates from the ordinary one, either due to the artist's action or to the actual different vision of reality by a third party. Illusory perception presents works whose content lies somewhere between fiction and reality, while emotive perception departs widely from an objective view of nature, as it presents a reality filtered by the artist in relation to his interiority and the emotions he feels during artistic expression. The last section of the exhibition, abstract perception, deals with abstract visions created in natural contexts by the artist, who gives rise to different degrees of decomposition of the landscape.

The exhibition begins with a dark transitional space, where the playback of a video inherent to the exhibition's theme introduces the viewer to the itinerary. Here the viewer lingers briefly, and catches fast-flowing frames of natural elements, in a succession of details and abstract visions. Leaving this space, the visitor finds himself inside a circular space, from which the septa of the sections originate, where a brief abstract is given.

The divisions of the partitions create a series of narrow slits that invite the visitor to acquire an attitude of active visual enjoyment of the space and "search" for glimpses: looking trough them, it is possible to glimpse monochrome enlargements placed on different panels, related to the works exhibited in each category. In addition, at the entrance to each section of the exhibition there is an introductory panel indicating its theme and title. At the end of the route, before the exit, there is the bookshop, a completely open space in direct continuity with the exhibition.

The central space of the exhibition

The exhibition layout, installation and graphic details and renderings

The exhibition catalogue has been divided into six different A5 books, one for each thematic section. Each book contains the biographies of the artists exposed and the works on display, in a succession of monochrome images, official photographs and short but effective texts. A box was also designed to store the six catalogues.

The design model was conceived as an abstract model, aimed at highlighting the strong contrast between the pre-existing space and the installation. In particular, one can see the strong contrast between the architecture, rendered monochromatically, the long white partitions and the coloured walls. Aim of the model is also to accentuate the natural perspectives created by the partitions, visible when looking closely at the arches and openings made along the walls.