Tutte le parole prima di pronunciarle (All the words before pronouncing them)

Giuliana Rosso is a painter using chalk, charcoal, and papier-mâché to explore the intersection of drawing and sculpture. Her ‘expanded painting’ invades the exhibition space, becoming a three-dimensional piece of organic matter that celebrates the fine line between life and death. Rosso’s drawing on carta da spolvero (paper sheet for mosaic) is pinned to the cafeteria blinds on both sides. Two anthropomorphic figures are at the centre of the composition. The first lies asleep and prone on the floor with bare feet. The second is alert and shields the companion with a tortoise-shell-like backpack from an impending, theatrical curtain fall and the onset of a dense forest of tree trunks. The characters have their mouth shut while being connected at the ear. Hence the title Tutte le parole prima di pronunciarle (All the words before pronouncing them), which is a quotation from author Natalia Ginzburg. Out of this drawing ooze a shapeless slime and a venous structure of mycelium. Such a mass of branches covers the lunch table, touches upon the papier-mâché canteen leftovers, and re-connects to artificial puddles made of plastic. Through this site-specific installation, Rosso celebrates the disrupting energy of fungi as catalyzers of the process of decomposition. These microorganisms are responsible for turning death into life, growing from decay, and offering lessons on how to live in transformative times. The two protagonists in Rosso’s work remind us that life and death are not opposites; instead, they are deeply intertwined. As author Jarod K. Anderson states, “Death teaches life about unity. Life shelters death from forever.”