The performance was born from the meeting between the director Leonardo Panizza and the artist Giulio Boccardi and is part of the "Generazione Antropocene" project promoted and financed by MUSE - Science Museum of Trento.
The output of the performance is a video (duration:10 min) which was born with a documentary intent and leads to video art.
Furthermore, the installation is enriched by a photographic narration of what happened and by a pink neon sign, used at the entrance of the greenhouse on the day of the performance.
On the occasion of the party for the 10th anniversary of MUSE, the tropical greenhouse of the Science Museum of Trento hosted the performance "EDEN": a man lived for 24 hours inside the greenhouse, simulating an idyllic situation, finding his home among plants and animals, in trees, in ponds or near waterfalls. The artists' objective is to help visitors to reflect on the relationship of symbiotic coexistence between man and nature: is it now only possible within an artificial space such as a museum greenhouse? Visitors were asked to feed the performer with some tropical food as a form of interaction: a symbolic stance which, if on one hand appears like an ancestral rite, while on the other critically recalls a form of domestication
“The tropical greenhouse inside the museum proves to be a symbolic place that testifies to the human ability to influence natural processes. This space, inhabited by flora and fauna typical of tropical environments (in particular, the species present are native to the Udzungwa Mountains in Tanzania), is an artificial micro paradise controlled and managed down to the smallest details: the technical equipment maintains a climate suitable for the life of species present, simulating the conditions of their original habitat. The greenhouse, from this point of view, is the most concrete form of the era we are experiencing: the Anthropocene. This apparent paradise corner, delimited by imposing windows that trace the border and interrupted by the presence of walkways, railings, artificial stones and information signs, is a place where nature deludes itself into thinking it is its own master. In this context, where man appears as a demigod, there is the possibility of generating the impossible, as well as an idyllic, new situation, close to the dimension of myth, primitive and wild, but projected into the future: an ecosystem in which the man is an integral part of the whole. In fact, “Eden” aims to be the staging of a situation that is possible (for now) only within a museum: that of a harmonious and peaceful coexistence between man and nature. A situation capable of asking questions, questioning and stimulating the visitor to a new sentimental approach towards the natural world.”
Giulio Boccardi and Leonardo Panizza
“In a historical moment in which it seems urgent to realize that the choices we make today affect the future, recalling the first decision-making act of the human being and the consequent irreversible change in the relationship with nature – the so-called original sin – is more relevant than ever . Leonardo Panizza and Giulio Boccardi do it by jointly designing the performance "Eden". «The tropical greenhouse is an emblematic place, an artificial micro paradise. The environment, managed down to the smallest detail to simulate the original habitat of the species present, is a symbol of the human ability to influence and control natural processes. Man appears like a demigod." In this Eden they trigger a paradoxical experiment capable of inverting the perspective compared to the contemporary human being who robs nature on a daily basis, starting from the choice to pick the forbidden fruit. The performance sees Boccardi living for a day inside the tropical greenhouse of the MUSE, naked, without any means available. He thus symbolically enters into harmony with nature, undressing himself, immersing himself in it.”
the curator Stefano Cagol
Concept: Giulio Boccardi and Leonardo Panizza
Performer: Giulio Boccardi
Director: Leonardo Panizza
Set photographer: Monica Smaniotto
Assistant: Martino Iori
Curator: Stefano Cagol
