Austrian Cultural Forum Rome: LAPIANTA. LA MEMORIA E NOI.
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SAVE THE DATE FOR THE NEXT EXHIBITION IN ROME
LAPIANTA. LA MEMORIA E NOI.
Tattiche di negoziazione per la pace nel mondo
THE PLANT. MEMORY AND US.TACTICS OF NEGOTIATION FOR PEACE IN THE WORLD
Exhibition duration: 24.03. until 17.04.2026
Location: Austrian Cultural Forum Rome, Viale Bruno Buozzi 113, Rome, Italy
This exhibition explores the relationships between plants, memory, and human coexistence, asking what we might learn from the vegetal world about resilience, attention, and more peaceful forms of living together.
At a time marked by
global tensions and ecological crises, the project reflects on peace not as an abstract ideal but as a continuous practice of negotiation
— with ourselves, with others, and with the environments we inhabit.
The Floral Archive
At the center of the exhibition is the Floral Archive, an ongoing artistic project inspired by the historical florilegia of the Renaissance—lavishly illustrated plant books that combined botanical knowledge, aesthetic observation, and symbolic interpretation.
The paintings in this archive present rare and endangered plants from Italy. However, unlike traditional botanical illustrations that classify plants as objects of scientific observation, these works approach plants as carriers of stories and memories. Botanical knowledge intertwines with mythological references, historical narratives, literary associations, personal memories, and surreal visual connections.
The paintings in the series “Florilegic Narration” create layered visual spaces where plants enter into dialogue with figures, objects, and symbolic elements historically or culturally associated with them. These compositions form visual narratives in which plant, human, and object exist on a shared plane of significance, challenging anthropocentric hierarchies and highlighting interdependence.
Color plays a central role in this series. Alongside delicate pastel tones appear vivid and intense colors that function as markers of memory, resilience, and hope. The plants do not appear fragile or passive; rather, they present themselves with presence, awareness, and agency.
Memory Beyond the Human
The exhibition approaches memory as something that does not belong exclusively to the human mind. Instead, memory unfolds between bodies, materials, images, and environments.
An emblematic example of vegetal memory is the plant Mimosa pudica. Its leaves close when touched as a protective reaction. Yet scientific experiments have shown that the plant can “remember” repeated harmless stimuli. If shaken several times without real danger, it eventually stops closing its leaves. This learned behavior can last for weeks—even up to forty days.
This phenomenon challenges our conventional understanding of memory. Memory is not necessarily dependent on a brain or nervous system. It can also be understood as a material inscription of experience, embodied in the behavior and structure of living organisms.
From the mimosa we might learn an important lesson for peaceful coexistence: not every contact is an attack. Sensitivity does not imply weakness—it allows an organism to respond, to evaluate, and to adapt.
Plants, Knowledge, and Ecological Thought
The conceptual framework of the exhibition intersects with ecofeminist and posthumanist perspectives. The works respond to critiques of extractivist models of knowledge and economy, such as those articulated by environmental thinker Vandana Shiva, which expose how biodiversity is often reduced to an economic resource.
Within the paintings, plants appear not as decorative motifs but as bearers of situated knowledge—forms of relational understanding embedded within ecological, historical, and cultural networks, a concept discussed by theorist Donna Haraway.
The works also resonate with research by plant neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso, who has demonstrated the complexity, perceptual capacities, and adaptive intelligence of plant life. In this perspective, plants are not passive organisms but dynamic relational systems that participate actively in ecological networks.
Through surreal displacements, mythological references, and symbolic condensations, the paintings position nature simultaneously as a cultural construction and an autonomous agent.
Memory, Care, and Design
Another section of the exhibition presents elements from the research project DEMEDARTS, which explores the relationships between art, design, and dementia. This part of the exhibition reflects on memory and forgetting as fundamental aspects of human life and emphasizes the importance of care, attention, and design in shaping dignified forms of coexistence.
One example is “The Gardener,” a critically speculative walker designed to rethink mobility, care, and everyday experience for people living with dementia.
Complementing this work are walkers developed by students from NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, created during a two-day workshop. These objects make visible that care, design, and peace are negotiated in everyday life—through objects, collaboration, and attentive listening.
Education, Ecology, and Soil Knowledge
The exhibition is further expanded through a teaching project from the University of Applied Arts Vienna within the framework of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Students investigated sustainable agricultural practices in Sicily and produced short documentary films that explore ecological relationships, biodiversity, and the social dimensions of farming.
The project was realized as a field workshop led by filmmaker John Dutton and myself, bringing another perspective into the exhibition—one that focuses on soil ecology, plant knowledge, and responsible future-oriented design.
An Open Archive
“La pianta. La memoria e noi” is conceived as an open archive. Knowledge here does not arise through strict classification but through relationships. Roots resemble neural networks, plants become carriers of memory, and images become spaces of exchange.
Ultimately, the exhibition proposes that peace begins in small gestures:in attention to nature, in respect for vulnerability, and in the willingness to recognize our shared interdependence.
I invite you to visit the exhibition at the Austrian Cultural Forum Rome between 24 March and 17 April 2026.
++Special Thanks to
Austrian Cultural Forum Rome, @forum.austriaco
Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs
Die Angewandte @dieangewandte
Zentrum Didaktik für Kunst und interdisziplinären Unterricht @zentrumkunstdidaktik
FWF @fwf_at AR-609 funded by PEEK
NABA @naba Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti
Calliope @calliopeaustria
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