Pistils embedded under nails. Allowing oneself to be accompanied, nude scent reassures.

The title of Luca Vanello’s exhibition evokes abstract sensations – those the artist experienced while searching for fragments within a pile of plant material in one of the places visited during his residency in Venice. These words form a short, evocative text, reminiscent of a line of poetry, its rhythm mirroring the structure of his sculptural compositions. Each phrase can be seen as a preliminary study based on a feeling, a constant presence in the artist’s creative process.
The very act of plunging one’s hands into an unfamiliar body of vegetal remnants is uncommon in a city like Venice – rare, like the opportunities to visit the island’s hidden gardens. These are places to be protected, and in turn, they protect us – pockets of vulnerability where the artist explores their restorative effects on our lives, repeating gestures of care that define the relationship between humans and plants.
The installation created for Panorama is a space suspended in time, where plants gathered from various gardens in Venice and Belgium – where the artist lives and works – shape an intimate and delicate atmosphere. Following his residency in the lagoon, Vanello transformed these botanical elements, extracting their vital essence, the chlorophyll, before assembling them into sculptures. The natural cycle of decay is thus interrupted through a technique that suspends the passage of time. In this way, the plant fragments begin a dual existence – both fragile and enduring.
Within this altered dimension, viewers encounter materials that feel unfamiliar. The impossible interplay between vulnerability and its absence creates a shared space of connection between living organisms. Alongside vegetal elements, the artist incorporates synthetic fragments – 3D-printed animal prosthetics – raising further questions about the role of technology in contexts of fragility. This interplay between the natural, the human, and the technological seeks to examine care and protection in relation to time. How will the environments we inhabit evolve in the future? How will our understanding of vulnerability change? (text written by the curator Giovanni Paolin)