PLINIO: GREENHOUSE EFFECT AT VILLA BERNASCONI

In the thirty-seven books of his Naturalis Historia, Pliny set out to collect and catalogue the entire knowledge of the ancient world. What we contemporaries refer to as "Nature" is recounted by Pliny by making the world appear as a lush hothouse filled with every wonder. Pliny the Elder was born in Como in 23 A.D. and begins to compile his Naturalis Historia in Rome in 70 A.D. in order to present it to Emperor Titus in 77 A.D. He does this after undertaking numerous journeys around what was then the known world: but reading his writings, even today, cannot leave one indifferent. Two thousand years later, on the occasion of the celebration of the second millennium of his foundation, that account prompts questions about the health of his - now our - greenhouse. The Naturalis Historia is not just a work of compilation, however; Pliny believes that Nature is the only God with whom man can confront. His sentiment is even less anthropocentric than ours has been until the last century. Only recently, however, have we moderns realized that we are part of a complex and complementary system where there are no first actors, no extras, and no sets as immutable roles. It is around this reflection that Vanni Cuoghi built his "work" installed at Villa Bernasconi. In the center of the villa's hall, the artist envisioned botanical elements reconstructed as theatrical wings degrees in turn immersed in a large green setting. In the other rooms, twelve dioramas are arranged to tell stories of great men who have often become myths. They are stories taken from oral legends or scriptures that have "small-large" human beings as actors: Pliny precisely but also Socrates or Leonardo... all of them, however, overlooked by a "nature" that participates in the events that take place inside these tiny greenhouses. Cuoghi's dioramas are thus a setting in which elements belonging to the plant or animal kingdom are presented in a small-scale reconstruction and in Villa Bernasconi he uses this as well as other techniques to poetic effect. PLINIO. Effetto serra therefore is anything but a merely celebratory exhibition, much less rhetorical: in Cuoghi the writings of the great Como artist have served as a stimulus for a reflection that involves us all.

PLINIO. Effetto serra

Artwork by Vanni Cuoghi

Curatela Aldo Premoli

Organizzata dal Comune di Cernobbio in collaborazione con l’Ass. Mediterraneo Sicilia Europa e il patrocinio del Comitato Nazionale per le celebrazioni del Bimillenario Pliniano

Dal 25 marzo al 2 ottobre 2023

Aperta dal venerdì al lunedì e festivi, ore 10-18

Compresa nel biglietto del museo

Villa Bernasconi, Largo Alfredo Campanini, 2, 22012 Cernobbio CO www.villabernasconi.it