Anaïs Tondeur
Other
Saturday 17 October · until 14 Nov
The Fiori di Fuoco exhibition, in which Anaïs Tondeur weaves together photography, ecology and philosophy, collecting phyto-graphic impressions of ruderal plants from the volcanic, polluted soils of the Land of Fires and Vesuvius, in correspondence with philosopher Michael Marder.
Weaving together photography and ecology, botany and philosophy, this project develops in the company of the plants that grow in the extreme soils of the Anthropocene: the Land of Fires and the volcanic zone of Vesuvius, in the Naples region. Grown over the course of an artistic residency led by the Spot gallery in Naples and guided by scientists and inhabitants of the territory, Fiori di Fuoco took shape as a correspondence between artist Anaïs Tondeur, philosopher Michael Marder and communities of ruderal plants growing in volcanic soils, marked by the consequences of the incineration and burial of toxic waste in the depths of the Land of Fires. According to some botanists, ruderal plants, when they evolve in highly polluted soils, produce large quantities of a molecule known as phenol. Through the photographic gesture, Anaïs Tondeur collects this excess of phenol through a phyto-graphic process. Without extracting the plants from their environment, this encounter through the image takes place with no other intervention than the contact between the elements present. For this, she uses sunlight for the exposure and a natural chemical reaction between phenolic molecules and a light-sensitive surface, a paper or fabric collected from rubbish dumps and later sensitised to light. Taking up the ritual of the poet and herbalist Emily Dickinson, who would enclose a dried plant in her correspondence (or, at times, a poem within her floral compositions), Anaïs Tondeur successively sends these non-human writings to the philosopher of vegetal thought Michael Marder, who replies with a letter addressed to each plant. Upon receiving the reply, she returns to the plant to read it the philosopher's words, while simultaneously collecting a new phyto-graphic impression of the plant. Wednesday to Saturday, from 14h30 to 18h30. fotografia imago.