Luca Petti • Processi di domesticazione espansa

Conceived for the spaces of the Museo di Storia Naturale di Verona, the installation “Processi di domesticazione espansa” is the direct outcome of the Premio RAR Residenza Artistica Rurale, a project dedicated to enhancing rural territories and culture through the languages of art. The award was granted to artist Luca Petti, represented by Galleria Marrocco and Villa Contemporanea, during the 2021 edition of ArtVerona.

Curated by Marta Ferretti and Daniele Girardi, the prize is promoted by Careof in collaboration with the Musei Civici di Verona – Museo di Storia Naturale and a network of partners including ArtVerona, Accademia di Belle Arti di Verona, and Azienda Agricola Domenico Fraccaroli. It is also sponsored by the Regione del Veneto and the Comune di Lavagno.

The work will be on display from October 14 to 30 in the monumental courtyard of Palazzo Pompei in Verona, one of the city’s most historically and architecturally significant buildings and home to the Museo di Storia Naturale, one of the most prestigious institutions of its kind in Italy and Europe.

“Processi di domesticazione espansa” presents the outcomes of the artist’s research in the botanical collection of the Museo di Storia Naturale di Verona and his residency period—conducted in collaboration with students from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Verona—at Villa Verità Fraccaroli in San Pietro di Lavagno, Verona.

Borrowing the form of stilted control stations once used to monitor vineyards and local ecosystems—from wild plants to animals—the artist subverts the traditional power hierarchy with humans at the top, constructing instead a new apparatus inhabited and governed by hybrid creatures. The installation, made of modular scaffolding pipes patinated through a metal tropicalization process, supports a unique ecosystem: aluminum-cast organic shapes that serve as both enclosures and powerful, yet fragile, armors capable of offering stability to a land gripped by change. Nestled in this structure are a series of sculptures combining animal and vegetal forms with anthropic traits inspired by Roman bas-reliefs found at Villa Verità Fraccaroli.

Griffins, snakes, dragons, and other fantastic creatures merge in a perpetual dance of forms, blending with human anatomy and illustrating a new planetary order where animals and plants rise to the top of a value system aimed at survival, adaptation, and renewed coexistence.

“Processi di domesticazione espansa” reflects the artist’s in-depth investigation throughout 2022 and explores unprecedented possibilities for evolutionary paths that have emerged after the Anthropocene. As part of the Premio RAR, the artist will also exhibit at Careof in Milan in November 2022.

Luca Petti (Benevento, 1990) lives in Milan. He moved in 2010 to study at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera (Milan), and from 2015 to 2017 he took part in the collective project he co-founded, Agreements to Zinedine – ATZ, an artist-run agency active until 2017. He has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions in Italy and abroad, and currently teaches at the Accademia di Belle Arti Santa Giulia Brescia and the Accademia di Belle Arti di Verona.