A group show at Rivoli Castle investigates the concept of mutual support between man and nature

From October 31, 2024 to March 23, 2025, Castello di Rivoli is hosting the exhibition Mutual Aid - Art in Collaboration with Nature, curated by Francesco Manacorda and Marianna Vecellio. Designed specifically for the space of the Manica Lunga, the group show, whose title originates from the theses of Russian philosopher Pyotr Kropotkin (1842-1921) summarized in his essay Mutual Aid. A Factor of Evolution, intends to explore the concept of mutual support by delving into the creative collaboration between humans and nature through the experiences of more than twenty artists and their nonhuman collaborators who have tackled the subject from the 1960s to the present: Maria Thereza Alves, Michel Blazy, Bianca Bondi & Guillaume Bouisset, Andrea Caretto & Raffaella Spagna, Agnes Denes, Hubert Duprat, Henrik Håkansson, Tamara Henderson, Aki Inomata, Renato Leotta, Nicholas Mangan, Yiannis Maniatakos, Nour Mobarak, Giuseppe Penone, Tomás Saraceno, Robert Smithson, Vivian Suter, Natsuko Uchino, and others.

In opposition to Charles Darwin’s theories, Kropotkin hypothesizes that in an unstable scenario with limited resources, the best option for survival is collaboration among species, that is, mutual support. Each work displayed in the exhibition is completed or co-created through the contribution of non-human elements or agents.

Thus, the exhibition aims to invite us to question the division between culture and nature, between environment and human being. Through various languages such as video, painting, sound, installation and sculpture, the exhibition aims to explore visions that seek new ways of collaboration with other species. The exhibition project thus proposes to the public an ecosystemic vision and an innovative and urgent approach to major environmental issues, based on coexistence, sharing and the value of multi-species collective creativity and planning.

The exhibition itinerary

The exhibition opens with the impressive canvases of Vivian Suter (Buenos Aires, 1949), made in the heart of the Guatemalan rainforest. Her works carry visible traces of nature, from tropical rains to marks left by animals. Suter entrusts the creative process to his surroundings, creating a dialogue between artwork and nature that challenges the concept of exclusively human authorship.

This is followed by two historical nuclei conceived as a tribute to the anticipatory practices of Giuseppe Penone (Garessio, 1947) and Agnes Denes (Budapest, 1931). Among the pioneers of art in dialogue with nature, Penone exhibits works from the Alpi Marittime series, the result of his artistic actions in the woods of Garessio. The sculpture Retaining 24 Years of Growth (It will continue to grow except at that point), 1986-2010, made from a walnut tree trunk, documents the artist’s collaboration with the tree, exemplifying his concept of “biological time” where human and natural processes merge. Agnes Denes, a Land Art pioneer, presents two historical projects, Rice/Tree/Burial, 1977-2012, which investigates the connection between human action and landscape through agricultural and burial rituals, and the series Tree Mountain - A Living Time Capsule, begun in 1992, a monumental reforestation project involving the planting of 11.000 trees in a mathematical scheme, reflecting on landscape resilience and the concept of “living time.”

Tomás Saraceno (San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina, 1973) has been exploring interspecies collaboration for years. For this exhibition, he presents a selection of never-before-exhibited works made from various species of spiders in his studio. The webs, sprinkled with graphite dust, are not only sculptural elements but also perceptual tools that invite the audience to reflect on the silent coexistence between human and nonhuman creatures.

The theme of co-habitation between species is at the heart of the work of artists such as Maria Thereza Alves (São Paulo, Brazil, 1961), who aims to create spaces of representation for oppressed human and nonhuman voices and communities. The series of watercolors on display in the exhibition, the result of an investigation activated by the artist into endangered species in the Piedmont landscape, is part of this framework. The idea of refuge is also central to the poetics of Hubert Duprat (Nérac in Lot-et-Garonne, France, 1957), where interaction with the nonhuman world is realized in collaboration with trichoptera, insects that build protective cases using precious materials provided by the artist such as pearls, gold and stones.

It continues with Nour Mobarak (Cairo, 1985) and his sculpture series Gods’ Facsimiles, 2023, in which the mycelium of the fungus Trametes versicolor directly intervenes in the material, transforming the sculptures into living organisms that mutate, decompose and recompose. The work evokes the myth of the nymph Daphne to investigate the impermanence of matter and the natural cycle of life and death.

In contrast, Japanese artist Aki Inomata (Japan, 1983) with the work How to Carve a Sculpture, 2018-in-progress, explores the relationship between nature and technology, starting with the behavior of the Eurasian beaver. Drawing inspiration from the animal’s typical ways of building dams, Inomata presents a series of sculptures made by hand and by an automatic cutting machine, which echo the complex wooden architectures of those produced by animals. Tamara Henderson (New Brunswick, Canada, 1982) also focuses attention on generally silent and hidden natural processes. With the work Worm Affair, 2023, visitors will hear the sounds produced by Lumbricus terrestris as they excavate and transform matter, in a reminder of the cycles of decomposition and regeneration that sustain life.

This is followed by the duo Andrea Caretto & Raffaella Spagna (active since 2002) exhibiting the work Être galet (To be pebble), 2011, born from an investigation of the Rhone River where the artists collect synthetic and natural materials transformed by the current. These “artificial pebbles” narrate the tension between human intervention and the natural force of the river, while the interactive installation Sensitive Stones. Project for an Experiential Lithotheque, 2023-ongoing, invites the public to pick up a stone polished by the artists at the Museum Library.

Michel Blazy (Munich, 1966) focuses on exploring processes such as the decay and metamorphosis of organic matter. At the Castello di Rivoli he brings Le lâcher d’escargots (The Release of Snails), 2009, an environmental installation in which the artist engages snails that travel along a carpet leaving trails reminiscent of the intersections of abstract painting.

The theme of sustainability and ecosystem resilience is central to the work of Nicholas Mangan (Geelong, Australia, 1979), who explores the impact of climate change on the Great Barrier Reef. In the work Core-Coralations, 2022-2023, Mangan reflects on the transformations undergone by corals as a result of rising ocean temperatures, while the sculpture Sarcophagi (Sarcophagi), 2023, simulates a charnel house built of bleached coral skeletons, emblematic of the fragility of marine ecosystems.

The exhibition continues with a reflection on the interactions between nature and the creative process, starting with the pictorial works of Yiannis Maniatakos (Flomochori Mani, 1935 - Athens, 2017). Since 1967, the artist has inaugurated a practice involving underwater painting sessions in the depths of the Aegean Sea, in a form of collaboration between painting and the sea. The relationship between artistic expression and chemical processes is at the center of Source and Origin, Lecce Stone, 2024, by Bianca Bondi & Guillaume Bouisset (Johannesburg, 1986; Madrid, 1990), an installation made with soil, salt, and halobacteria from the salt marshes of Camargue. The halobacteria, known for their role in the progressive decontamination of the environment by degrading heavy metals, transform the work into an ever-evolving living organism whose color and composition change over time.

Renato Leotta (Turin, 1982), with his series Gipsoteca, 2012-in-progress, presents plaster casts that record the movements of the sea on the Mediterranean coast, creating a sensitive mapping of natural forces. In the work Self-Portrait of Plankton, 2023, Leotta exploits the bioluminescence emitted by marine microorganisms to produce a photographic trace, weaving art and natural phenomena into a dialogue between light and water.

Natsuko Uchino’s (Kumamoto, Japan, 1983) practice focuses on processes of participation and sustainability: she presents an environment made especially for this exhibition with natural materials such as soil, brushwood, portions of a tree and beeswax to host moments of public encounters dedicated to the sharing of kefir and other forms of shared rituality. Henrik Håkansson (Helsingborg, Sweden, 1968) also seeks to reduce the distance between human beings and nature, proposing a new commission that reinterprets Bruce Nauman’s Corridor. Håkansson’s path is rendered inaccessible to humans and activated instead by the presence of vegetation, which becomes the work’s protagonist, endlessly reflected.

A focus is devoted to the work of Robert Smithson (Passaic, New Jersey, 1938 - Amarillo, Texas, 1973), focusing on themes such as entropy, time and the interaction between human and nonhuman forces. On display for the occasion is the series of photographs Overgrown Structure, 1971, taken by the artist in Florida in the 1970s and never before exhibited in Europe, which depicts the typical practice of the people there of protecting plants from extreme heat through the use of nets and curtains.

The path culminates with the immersive installation The sun eats her children, 2023, by Precious Okoyomon (London, 1993), in which a tropical greenhouse hosts butterflies and poisonous plants in a surreal landscape. The work, which recalls stories of slavery and resistance, transforms the natural environment into a powerful symbol of strength and regeneration, mixing dystopian and historical elements.

Mutual Aid - Art in Collaboration with Nature also extends to the Cerruti Collection, which will host the first episode of the Interferences series, in which the Castello di Rivoli program fits into the fabric of Villa Cerruti in a hypertextual connection that highlights both their interdependence and their affinities and differences. Works by Henrik Håkansson, Renato Leotta, and Natsuko Uchino will be placed in the rooms of the Cerruti Collection to explore some of its as yet little-investigated aspects.

To reduce the environmental impact of the project as much as possible, the museum favored solutions for transporting the works that did not contemplate that by air. For this reason, Nicholas Mangan’s sculptural work will be set up later, after the exhibition has opened, the museum having with the artist chosen sea transportation, which has been severely delayed. Locally produced exhibition replicas were also used for the installation of the project, using recycled and recyclable materials and energy, and consulting experts for the welfare of all species involved.

For all info: https://www.castellodirivoli.org/

Pictured: Michel Blazy, Le lâcher d’escargots (The release of snails), detail (2009). Courtesy of the artist and Art: Concept, Paris. © Michel Blazy

A group show at Rivoli Castle investigates the concept of mutual support between man and nature

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