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The check-list of the vertebrate fauna of the PNRML (implemented with descriptive sheets of the faunal species) completed in 2016 by the Monti Lucretili Park was the first inspiration for a bestiary of the Lucretili mountains: a very long and inevitably incomplete list, which in its relative brevity gives an immediate impression of the very rich biological heritage of this territory.

 

Bestiaries are proto manuals of zoology whose period of greatest production was the Middle Ages; in a bestiary, visual communication had a fundamental role: a book in which scientific disclosure (they were mainly a tool for learning about the animal kingdom of distant ecosystems) and imagination coexist. Imagination is activated where knowledge runs out and this is why the art-science and art-nature relationship is among the oldest and most indissoluble.

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The life of microscopic as well as macroscopic fauna have been the underlying stimulus of artistic expression since ancient times. Contemporary artists have not stopped reflecting and marveling at the reality that emerges not only from the simple vision of nature but also from scientific investigation and environmental politics. A bestiary is therefore still a necessary tool, useful for nourishing both education and imagination.

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The exhibition will be divided into three sections: Invertebrates, Fishes / Amphibians / Reptiles, Birds / Mammals. 

The curator's intention is to create a pop art gallery in which the central subject - the fauna of the Park - is the only constant around which to bring together a plurality of very different contemporary artistic languages.

Around 70 animals depicted by as many artists from all over the world to try to restore the wonder of the forest within the museum environment.

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The purpose of the Bestiario Lucretile exhibition is to celebrate the fauna of the Monti Lucretili Park through the creation of a vast gallery of artworks mostly commissioned ad hoc to established Italian and international artists. The exhibition, lasting three months, has the immediate aims of carrying out artistic and scientific educational activities and at the same time promoting the protection of the environment of the Monti Lucretili Park in Italy and abroad.

A dedicated website will collect both the works on display and in-depth information on the artists and their techniques which will be associated with information on the animal represented and its location and function in the local ecosystem.

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Ultimately the curatorial purpose of the project is to stimulate reflections on the relationship between art and nature: a theme that has evolved over time, moving from contemplation and faithful representation to direct manipulation and environmental denunciation. By intertwining heartfelt tributes and loving glances we try to confront without preconceptions the inevitability of the anthropocentric gaze, highlighting the positive examples and using it to reevaluate the contemplative dimension in spite of the destructive one. An initiative to speak in different languages ​​about the need, history, action and beauty of the Park.

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Curator: Giulio Di Mauro / AR Lab

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Executive Production: Archaeological Records

in association with:     L'Aquila Reale Centro Arte e Natura di Civitella di Licenza

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