Incorporating everyday found objects and modelled elements in sculptures and immersive installations, Giulia Cenci hybridises the natural with the synthetic to explore themes of technology and nature. The objects, cast and re-cast in an alchemical process, are then cumulatively combined into site-specific arrangements. The moulds of human and animal parts are then re-shaped into different animals such as wolves or horses, while other pieces suggest fragments of limbs. These are paired with casts of industrial remnants in rubber and metal, discarded parts of machinery from cars and piping. The materials are then coated with organic components such as graphite powder, marble dust, and ashes. Composing complex objects through modification, fragmentation, and hybridisation, Cenci pushes towards the disruption and disintegration of hierarchical distinctions between machines, animals, plants, bacteria, and humans. Cenci’s work for The Milk of Dreams, titled dead dance (2021–2022), constitutes a 150-metre walk through an environment constructed from remnants of industrial farming equipment. This armature is populated by fragments of human and animal bodies, each cast in aluminium salvaged from auto parts and some of which appear in multiple iterations. With this spatialised progression of chimeral figures, Cenci explores the conditions underlying the industrial production of food and, in turn, of life itself.
Liv Cuniberti
