Potlatch 13.1 / The Dead End Strategy

2007-2008

mud resulting from the depuration of urban wastewater as the substratum, uncountable number of seeds of hundreds of different species of plants (flowers, cereals, vegetables, aromatics, legumes and a huge variety of wild plants), lightning system for indoor growing, irrigation system, industrial wooden containers

5 × 5 m

Following the request of the curators (Stephanie Moisdon and Hans Ulrich Obrist) of focusing on a topic which was central to me in order to describe the current decade, I elaborated a set up that could be a real experiment in the field of “growth” (literally and metaphorically intended). The basic idea was to fix a starting point in which most of the issues involved in the relationship natural/artificial would have been displaced, and to abandon then the whole package to its own unpredictable, although helpless, destiny. The set up evolved in many ways, with a huge growth of plants and insects.In particular, after two months, the artwork was totally colonized by spiders which covered almost completely its surface with webs. A number of plants produced fruits and flowers during the period of the show.The project was made possible by the generous contribution of Microbiologist Prof. Giusto Giovannetti.