The Plasteozoic Era. An ecological dystopia

Through photographs, installations, drawings and imaginary taxonomic records, the project developed by the Dominican collective Pictoria Newhouse, comprising visual artists, photographers and architects Victoria Thomen e Guadalupe Casasnovas and edited by Julian Kunhardt, creates a natural archive of the future in which animals appear to have been gradually replaced by plastic replicas. A fascinating journey that transforms plastic from a mere pollutant into a material capable of blending into its surroundings, eventually becoming a genuine geological trace of human civilisation.

Inspired by an expedition to the Laguna de los Flamencos on the island of Saona at Dominican Republic, the project explores the concept of plastiglomerate and the emergence of an impossible zoology. First presented at Milan, the exhibition enters into a direct and evocative dialogue with the scientific heritage and historical collections of the Milan Museum of Natural History — such as the stuffed flamingo and the reptiles preserved in alcohol sent in the 1930s by the Moca Agricultural Station —, as part of the multidisciplinary programme TRACKS organised by the Scientific Institutes of the City of Milan.