Curated by the Fondazione Prada Thought Council, whose current members are Shumon Basar, Cédric Libert, Elvira Dyangani Ose, and Dieter Roelstraete, “Slight Agitation” continues with a second instalment by Pamela Rosenkranz (Switzerland, 1979). She follows on from Tobias Putrih (Slovenia, 1972), while Laura Lima (Brazil, 1971) and Gelitin, the Austrian collective active since 1993, will produce future chapters.

Pamela Rosenkranz’s work explores how physical and biological processes affect art. Her installation Infection is based on a neuro-active parasite, of which an estimated 30% of the world’s population is affected. A huge, almost sublime mountain of sand is formed inside the Cisterna’s tall spaces. Its scale pressuring against the historic architecture. The sand is impregnated with fragrance of synthetic cat pheromones that activates a specific, biologically determined attraction or repulsion and subconsciously influence the public’s movement. RGB green light illuminates the peak of this chemically altered nature gently evaporating the scent.

 “Slight Agitation 2/4:  Pamela Rosenkranz” Infection, 2017
Photo Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti

Following Tobias Putrih’s instalment—which engaged with ideas of play, politics and emancipation—Pamela Rosenkranz’s chapter continues the Thought Council’s interest in “agitating” the mind and body, senses and space. Rosenkranz’s intervention will be perceived at different distances, which heighten and alter the architecture of the Cisterna. The circular plan, and chemical investigation, is an oblique memory of the Cisterna’s alcohol distilling vats that were formerly housed there. The green light leaking through the Cisterna’s windows, transforms the building into a vitrine, a luminous object sensed from the outside.
It will intensify as day turns to night, engaging with the Fondazione’s nocturnal character. Members of the public will have a direct, intimate experience of the sculptural intervention from a number of angles: at ground level and also from above, emphasizing the formal qualities of the Cisterna: its volume, its heaviness, its religious invocation.
An uneasy feeling around biological determination will engage multiple senses: smell, heat and coldness, mass and density, light and its absence. Pamela Rosenkranz’s intervention furthers the ambitions of “Slight Agitation” by offering immersion into a new sensation of embodiment and collectivity.

“Extinct in the Wild”, conceived by American artist Michael Wang (1981), brings together flora and fauna that are no longer found in nature, but persist exclusively under human care, within an artificial habitat. Labelled with the officially designated term “extinct in the wild”, these species have left nature behind to fully enter the circuits of human culture.
In this project, natural beings such as plants and animals are transplanted into an exhibition and cultural space. In the age of extinction, such displacements are not only aesthetic devices but stand for actual strategies of survival.

Michael Wang conceived an exhibition in which three glass and aluminum enclosures with artificial lights accomodate these extinct species within the space of the Nord gallery, where a selection of photographs is also exhibited. Some of those species, such as the ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba) are common in cultivation. Others, like the blue cycad (Encephalartos nubimontanus), are some of the rarest species on earth. Some animals have persisted in artificial conditions for many years, like the aquatic axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum), which was known only from the Aztec canals of Mexico City, most of which have long been drained. Angel’s tears (Brugmansia suaveolens), a plant with fragrant white flowers, disappeared from the wilds of South America with the extinction of the species that distributed its seeds. Nonetheless, its religious significance as a potent psychoactive drug insured its survival in traditional cultivation. Several species have survived only through heroic human efforts. The Hawaiian ōlulu (Brighamia insignis), for instance, whose last specimen was recorded in 2014, was rescued from extinction thanks to a team of botanists who hand-pollinated the very last individuals and collected seeds, by rappelling into the steep ocean cliffs on the island of Kaua’i. The exhibition is completed by a series of 20 photographs, taken by Michael Wang from 2014 to the present day, which portray different extinct in the wild species and the original habitats where they lived prior to their extinction in nature.

“Extinct in the Wild”curated by Michael Wang.Photo Delfino Sisto Legnani and Marco Cappelletti

For the duration of the show, exhibition staff will tend to these living organisms, joining the ranks of gardeners, zookeepers, scientists and hobbyists who are the species’ only lifeline. The curators become caretakers, returning the practice of curation to its ancient roots in cura, meaning “care.”

“Extinct in the Wild” is one of the three ex-aequo winning projects (along with those conceived by Evelyn Simons and Adnan Yldiz) of “Curate Award”, an international competition promoted by Fondazione Prada and Qatar Museums. Launched in May 2013, “Curate Award” aims to find new curating talent and to bring about original perspectives in exhibition making. The international jury selected the three winning projects in August 2014 among a large number of submitted proposals from 63 different countries.