Seeds of Time

The exhibition Seeds of Time represents the first institutional solo exhibition in Italy of theUS artist Alan Sonfist (born 1946), curated by Marco Scotini. The project explores the relationship between art and ecologyfocusing on the pioneering work of the 1960s and 1970s in the field of the Land Art. Sonfist, described as a 'visual archaeologist', conceives his installations as living public monuments celebrating the entire natural ecosysteminvolving plants, animals and minerals.

On show, the new site-specific work Growth Between the Cracks (2025) recalls the participation of the Turin community, which collected soil samples from the asphalt cracks and urban spaces, generating a kind of plant mapping which tells the environmental story of the area. This investigation is related to the practice started in 1969 in New York, where Sonfist documented urban nature as evidence of ancient forests.

The exhibition continues with a selection of performance photographs (1969-1974) in which the artist merges with nature: embracing trees (Myself Becoming One with the Tree), merging with the bark (Myself Becoming the Tree) or by assuming animal identities such as tiger (Tiger Chance Kill) e gorilla (Territorial Gorilla Invasion).

In addition, there are documentations of historical installations, including the famous Time Landscape (1965-ongoing) in Manhattan, a pre-colonial forest created as a 'living monument', and Circles of Time (1986), which illustrates the history of Tuscan land use through concentric rings.

The exhibition also includes a participatory meeting with Sonfist and citizens involved in the call to action, organised by AEF/PAV, with the collaboration of Carmen Concilio (UniTO), open to dialogue on environmental and artistic issues.