EXCERPT FROM THE PRESS RELEASE OF RECLAIMING REALMS
“Reclaiming Realms are endless post-Anthropocene possibilities of credible and verisimilar transformations: while hybrid animals that no longer follow any evolutionary law reclaim their spaces and redefine the landscape by creating interactions never seen before, wildlife, deprived of its territory and trophic resources, crosses the “border” of the city and reconquers urban spaces. The ancient natural habitats now replaced and fragmented by human activity are thus transformed into opportunities to exploit new resources and new environmental conditions where the animal can respond exclusively to its own logic of opportunism. In Reclaiming Realms, human beings are wholly irrelevant to the narrative; their presence does not determine, obstruct, facilitate or even preserve a nature that now independently follows its own evolutionary path. In comparison to this, the modern human being is simply an “unfinished animal” that, in order to adapt to the environment, requires technology, humanity’s essential tool for facilitating vital relationships and compensating for biological deficiencies”. Valentina Benedetta Marinone
WORKS
Atlas of De-extinction 01, 2021, watercolor on printed handmade paper, 80 x 117,5 cm
Mammoth 02, 2021, watercolor on printed handmade paper, 30 x 30 cm, watercolor on printed handmade paper, 30 x 30 cm
Toxodon 02, 2022, watercolor on printed handmade paper, 30 x 30 cm
Dodo 02, 2021, watercolor on printed handmade paper, 30 x 30 cm
Floreana Island tortoise 02, 2021, watercolor on printed handmade paper, 30 x 30 cm
The de-extincts, 2022, watercolor on canvas, 150 x 150 cm
The Bionics, 2022, watercolor on canvas, 150 x 150 cm
EXHIBITION
Reclaiming realms, VBM Gallery, Berlin, 2022-2023
Text: Valentina Benedetta Marinone