Matteo Cibic at the Luigi Rovati Foundation, a reflection on plant intelligence

From March 26 to April 13, 2025, the Luigi Rovati Foundation will host a new exhibition by Matteo Cibic (Parma, 1983), an artist known for his exploration of the boundaries between art and nature, science and spirituality. The project, entitled Lakapoliesis, stems from a desire to reflect on the relationship between human beings and the plant world, a theme that Cibic has developed with an innovative approach, mixing artistic and scientific languages. The exhibition will be set up in the evocative spaces of the Art Pavilion and in the foundation’s garden, and is intended as a reflection on the cognitive capacities of plants, observed no longer as simple passive organisms, but as entities endowed with their own emotional and relational sphere. The Lakapoliesis project breaks away from the traditional view that sees nature as an object in the service of man, proposing a new perspective that sees plants as active and complex subjects, capable of emotions and a kind of consciousness. Inspired by the theories of naturalist Alexander Humboldt and the studies of plant behavior by Jagadish Chandra Bose and Monica Gagliano, Cibic creates a series of works that go beyond simple botanical representation. His creations, including three-dimensional color maps and large-scale plant compositions, are an invitation to look at the plant world in a different light, exploring the possibility that plants possess a form of cognition and sensitivity. The main body of the exhibition is developed through a series of sculptures that combine natural and industrial materials: wood, recycled aluminum, marble dust and knotted wool are interwoven to create a novel plant nomenclature, a kind of plastic language that attempts to tell the perception of plants in its most intimate aspects.

In the Foundation’s garden, two large-scale sculptures, made of recycled aluminum through a collaboration with CIAL (Consorzio Nazionale Imballaggi Alluminio), testify to the versatility and rebirth of this material. The sculptures, inspired by aluminum’s ability to transform and reinvent itself, tell the idea of immortality and regeneration, with a clear reference to the natural cycle and the ability of plants to adapt and regenerate over time. The material, which is reborn in multiple forms, thus becomes the symbol of a nature that knows no end, but constantly regenerates itself, like an organism that defies the laws of time. Alongside the new works, the exhibition at the Art Pavilion includes an excerpt from Dermapoliesis (2017), an earlier project by Cibic that explores a future in which plants not only live, but also generate finished products. In Dermapoliesis, the artist imagines a world in which nature becomes a source of autonomous production, creating through hybrid and futuristic botanical prototypes that tell of the possibility of a radically different production system, in which plants are not just objects of consumption, but active subjects in the production of goods and fragrances. The two works, Lakapoliesis and Dermapoliesis, represent the culmination of a long research process that Matteo Cibic has pursued from 2017 to the present. This path reflects an evolution in the artist’s thinking, which has moved from an anthropocentric view of nature to a concept of a deeper interconnection between humans and the natural environment.

Artist Notes

Matteo Cibic is a transmedia artist who uses his art to explore the world and imagine utopian future scenarios. His work is rooted in the phenomenon of pareidolia, or the tendency to perceive faces or emotions in inanimate objects. Since 2022, Cibic has extended this research to the study of the emotions and cognitive abilities of plants. Whether creating objects with hybrid and unusual functions or sculptures with joyful shapes reminiscent of those of plants, his work always arouses a sense of fantasy and pleasure. His works have been exhibited in prestigious international institutions, including the Museum of Decorative Arts (MAD) in Paris, the Shanghai Museum of Glass, the Saint-Étienne Design Biennial, Mudac in Lausanne, the Triennale Design Museum in Milan, the Musée Mandet in Riom, the Montelupo Museum in Florence, and the Museo del Gioiello in Vicenza.

Matteo Cibic at the Luigi Rovati Foundation, a reflection on plant intelligence

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