Following on from the Matter Temple_Mudam workshop, the artists will present their first monograph, a comprehensive overview of their work entitled Bright Ecologies – Experiences, Forms, Materials. This discussion will provide an opportunity to find out more about some of the fifty-plus projects included. The fruit of a close dialogue between artists, curators and publisher, the publication combines a documentary approach with critical and theoretical interpretation and a rich compilation of descriptions and images. The meeting will also provide an opportunity to activate the collection of objects (small sculptures, fossil traces, drawings, plant parts, found objects, etc.) selected from their personal archives.

The public will be taken on an interactive journey through the contents of the book, in particular the section devoted to archives, which is structured around the following key concepts: All the Things That Are, Domestications, Dwelling, Soil as Experience, Matter in-formation, Abyssal Time, Mountains Waters, Divinations, Dark Matters, Museum as Ecosystem. Caretto and Spagna are pioneers of ecologically engaged artistic practices, identifying art as a field for a radical experience of openness, disruptive research and engagement with things of the world.

Biographies:

Andrea Caretto (1970, Turin, natural sciences graduate) and Raffaella Spagna (1967, Rivoli, architecture graduate) have been working together since 2002, forming the Caretto/Spagna duo. They explore the complex network of relationships from which things emerge: the flows and cycles of matter and morphogenesis, the perception of the environment, the transformations of the landscape, the wild/cultivated relationship and the processes of domestication, the relationships between living/inhabiting/building. Their artistic practice is marked by a philosophical, poetic and strongly political approach that expresses itself through activism and reflection on issues that are currently at the heart of international theoretical and artistic debate and against a backdrop of a rise in post-humanist and ecocentric philosophies, new materialisms and growing alarm about climate change. They are founding members of the Diogene artists’ association in Turin and of the Pianpicollo Selvatico ETS Foundation – a research centre for the arts and sciences, Levice (TO), as well as artistic consultants for the Munlab Ecomuseo dell’Argilla in Cambiano (TO). They collaborate with Turin University and the Unidee Academy of Cittadellarte-Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella (IT). They live and work in Cambiano (TO).