On the occasion of the Nineteenth Giornata del Contemporaneo, Saturday 7 October 2023, 5 pm in the Sala delle Idee of the City Museum, artist Osvaldo Maffei and curator Thomas Dalla Costa, with the participation of Prof. Fabrizio Bizzarini, will discuss the relationship between art history and natural sciences. This year's Giornata del Contemporaneo will focus on the theme of ecology, which is connected to that of sustainability, and thus "emphasises the inseparable bond that unites human beings with nature and vice versa". On the other hand, ecology, a term coined in 1866 by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel, i.e. the science that studies the relationships between living beings and the environment in which they live, has today broadened its field of interest. Indeed, it looks towards the scientific analysis of human needs, preferences, aspirations and values with respect to the physical environment, elements that can be summarised in the term 'human ecology'.
In this context, the book “Marmi colorati e le pietre da costruzione a Venezia”, Supplemento al volume 46; NATURA A VENEZIA, Parte Terza edito dalla Società Veneziana di Scienze Naturali (2021) will be presented. This is a text of scientific rigour that, as specified in the preface, helps us to interpret and decode the function of natural stones in Veneto's architectural and artistic context.
This appointment that can serve to interpret and understand the language of the artists of the past, buti t is also an invitation to visit the exhibition AQUAE PETRA MUNDI, which tackles the theme from the point of view of contemporary art. Curated by Thomas Dalla Costa and set up at Villa del Bene in Volargne di Dolcè (VR), the exhibition will be open from 15 October to 5 November 2023. Given the great historical interest of the site, one of the westernmost Venetian villas of the former Venetian Republic, curator Thomas Dalla Co-sta will describe the historical and artistic context in which Osvaldo Maffei's works will be placed. "This is a series of drawn and painted maps inspired by a study trip to Monte Baldo, a mountain that lies between the provinces of Trento and Verona and towers above Lake Garda, organised in 1991 by the Museo Civico di Rovereto. On that excursion, Maffei was able to observe and study ammonites, large fossil shells that are extraordinarily widespread but also just as important. They are in fact regarded by archaeologists and palaeontologists as the guiding fossil par excellence, being used in stratigraphy for the dating of sedimentary rocks. Osvaldo Maffei has therefore embarked on a sort of journey through time to discover, observe and interrogate the footprints left in the rock by life forms that inhabited the waters of the sea that, over 200 million years ago, covered the entire Trentino region, including the Baldo. The peculiar spi-ral shape coiled and imprinted on a plane is undoubtedly the most distinctive feature of ammonites, and makes them known to all”.