Biophilia – Marco Vernaschi

Marco Vernaschi is an Italian visual artist, creative director and producer best known for his thought-provoking visuals and inspirational campaigns. He developed a variety of projects in different fields, ranging from documentary to advocacy and contemporary art. Marco’s work is part of several private and museum collections, and is featured globally in the most respected media. Through 2021 Marco produced AHÍCITO NOMÁS, to investigate the link between ancestral and contemporary feminism in Argentina’s Andean Altiplano. In 2019, he contributed to APPLE’s global campaign #ShotOnIphone with GAUCHA, focusing on the role of gaucho matriarchs in Argentine culture.

THIS STORY CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT

 

Argentina – 

The term “Biophilia” literally means “love for life or living systems.” It was first used by Erich Fromm to describe the psychological orientation of being attracted to all that is alive. “The Biophilia Hypothesis” was a step beyond; Edward O. Wilson introduced it in 1984, suggesting an instinctive, subconscious bond between human beings and other living systems. Wilson concludes that the deep relationship between humans and nature is rooted in our biology. Human preferences towards natural things, while refined through experience and culture, are hypothetically the product of biological evolution. In other words, our natural love for life helps sustain life itself.

As humankind, we’re globally facing historical moments of radical changes, a transition from the Modern to the Post Modern Age, in which most social structures have failed or are on the verge of collapse. We’re living an environmental crisis, a financial crisis but mostly a crisis of the human spirit. The disorientation resulting from this much needed chaos leads us all to rethink and possibly to reshape our lives in different ways. Nature turns out to be – if not the answer – at least the asylum in which more and more people look for new models of living, or simple inspiration.

 

The project BIOPHILIA explores the instinctive drive behind this phenomenon, based on direct experience and beyond any specific cultural or social contexts. The resulting artistic production will be based on the 5 senses; the visuals will be complemented by a series of interventions based on taste, smell, and touch resulting in a series of indoor and outdoor installations and framed by a compelling set of sounds. The goal is to offer a stimulating experience from a participative perspective, based on principles of exploration that will allow the audience to live an evocative experience of reconnection with the natural worlds.

 

Written and photography by Marco Vernaschi 

 

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