Urpflanze

PRESS RELEASE

From 27 September to 20 October 2026, the Botanical Garden of Palermo will host the exhibition URPFLANZE, which brings together, for the first time in Italy, the works of international artists Nicola Costantino and Paola Marzotto. The exhibition is organised by Amici dei Musei Siciliani in collaboration with Unipa Heritage – Botanical Garden.

The title refers to the insight that Goethe had in this very place in 1787, when, having disembarked in Palermo, he contemplated – whilst observing the variety of vegetation around him – the hypothesis of an original plant – the ‘Urpflanze’, in fact – from which all other forms are said to descend.

Paola Marzotto’s photographs linger on shoots, buds and stems captured at the height of their vital energy, conveying an idea of nature as a generative impulse rather than mere ornament: ‘Small Green Landscapes’ and ‘Orchids’, taken from the project ‘The Garden of Eden – Botanic Gardens, Singapore’.

Nicola Costantino’s clay sculptures of imaginary plants, the result of a process that assembles layers of pigmented material, give form to branches, corollas and roots endowed with a supple, almost animal-like vigour.

Whilst employing different artistic languages, both artists draw inspiration from nature’s ability to generate unique ecosystems – even in small environments – born of chance. Their works invite us to study nature’s laws and to seek the secret harmony that governs its apparent disorder.

The exhibition can be visited during the Botanical Garden’s opening hours (Mon–Sat 9am–6pm | Sun 10am–6pm), with a ticket to the Botanical Garden.

THE ARTISTS

NICOLA COSTANTINO
Born in Rosario in 1964 into a family of Italian origin, Nicola Costantino studied Fine Art before moving to Buenos Aires in the 1990s. Her hybrid background has shaped a provocative artistic practice that combines sculpture, performance and photography. Having become one of the leading figures in Latin American contemporary art, with works in the MoMA collection, she exhibits in the most prestigious international museums and gained worldwide fame by representing Argentina at the Venice Biennale in 2013. She now lives and works in Buenos Aires, where she continues her conceptual exploration of identity and social memory.
 

PAOLA MARZOTTO
Born in 1955 and raised in Rome during the 1970s, Paola Marzotto is a journalist who worked for various newspapers and on television before devoting herself entirely to artistic nature photography. In 2021, she founded Eye-V Gallery, a collective of artists and photographers, with the aim of promoting the mystique of nature in its most diverse forms. In the same year, her work was exhibited at the Italian Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Her photographs of Antarctica (currently on display at the Milan Civic Aquarium until 5 November) have been exhibited in the world’s most important cultural institutions, including the Palacio Libertad in Buenos Aires. Her commitment is never rhetorical: “We cannot continue to think that nature belongs to us. It is we who belong to nature,” he stated.

INFO

Press Office
Paolo Landi
paolo.landi@creativemedia.it
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