What happens when ordinary phenomena manifest as a complex network of facts, behaviours, actual or historical discoveries? What occurs when we give space to the transient nature of life? Nulla Due Volte, (Never Twice), a suggestion of the homonymous poem by Wislawa Szymborska, unfolds as an anthology of the uniqueness of existence and of all its forms: natural, human, human-made and something in between. Six artists intertwine in a praise of life’s extraordinary singularity, unrepeatable events that flash before they’re even witnessed, and the attempts to record them once they’ve happened. The exhibition at Galleria Astuni unfolds like a labyrinth of sensible and sensitive encounters.
AA.VV.,”Nulla Due Volte”, installation view, ph. Manuel Montesano, courtesy Galleria Enrico Astuni Bologna
Daniele di Girolamo’s works appear as living creatures and moving structures that ask to be studied and experienced to be fully grasped. The Sleeping Baroque series (2024) result from a feast of encounters between its inner and outer environments. Every crease and turn, inward or outward, every tension and release recounts the gestures that gave life to the artwork: there one finds the evoking of its creation through the formal and tactile reminiscence of an irrepeatable occurrence and its palpable absence. Di Girolamo also stimulates the auditory perception with Sending a letter for sanding words (2022), an expansive, natural carillon which feels like a portal to another dimension. This resonant installation conjures quite a specific and ancestral space, one that only the artist knows how to bring forth with the alchemy of materials. Next to Sleeping Baroque, Martin Romeo’s Anthropic Cloud – a sculpture (2022) and an interactive video (2023-2023) – raise awareness of the anthropogenic’s impact on the planet and natural phenomena. His artworks produce an unexpected effect which first confuses and then discloses a deeper meaning: how can humidity contained in a cloud never condensate? An interactive video that won’t respond to the visitor’s stimuli? Along with the sculpture and video Atmosphere (2024), in these works the human impact is indeed the spark that ignites a liable procedure, one that sheds light – or forms digital clouds – as living proof of the immediate and ever changing interaction between natural, digital and human realms.
AA.VV.,”Nulla Due Volte”, installation view, ph. Manuel Montesano, courtesy Galleria Enrico Astuni Bologna
Thomas Berra’s habitats emerge in Le luci delle stelle chiare come un rifugio capovolto (2025), In quel corridoio di cielo notturno (2025) and Figura umana nei campi con sigaretta (2024) and show the acceptance of those who are often refused and excluded. There’s a strong reference to ‘Eloge de vagabonde’ by Gilles Clément: in Berra’s paintings the human figure becomes as vivid as the powerful and unpredictable landscape of the vagabonds. The unwanted part of nature wander not in search for an anchor but only to spread their essence in a dreamy and surreal world; here humanity happens to be preciously diverse like the infesting plants: so unique that the spectator seeks them, the human and the weed, this time not to uproot them but to admire such ethereal garden. Another landscape arises from layers of present history, where the gaze exhumes unexpected finds: Martina Biolo creates a contemporary archeology that elevates domestic objects of the most recent past. DOVE RIPOSA (2025) and Parlo di noi (2023) are sculptures that save what risks being forgotten by their creator. Materials, traditions and practices are preserved so they can settle into memory, clinging to a history that might otherwise leave behind the uneventful. Yet these objects are quite the opposite: they generate happenings, patterns, rituals; they’re so revealing to be seen by the artist and kept as unearthed treasures.
AA.VV.,”Nulla Due Volte”, installation view, ph. Manuel Montesano, courtesy Galleria Enrico Astuni Bologna
Antonio Fiorentino is a catalyst for organic processes, both co-author and assistant to nature. His sculptures Opusmaris (2013) and cyanotypes series Untitled (2024) witness the transformative meeting between light, sea water, and the artist himself. Every piece he makes is a material photograph, a singular event that captures the presence of Fiorentino anew: his shadow at dawn in the cyanotypes, his surrender to time and nature’s forces in the sculptures. Lose Voice Toolkit (2024) begins as a research into the possibilities of language, seeking a liberating method of communication and relation to the other, one that can grasp existence through a system that does not trap it in a limiting form. To do so, Adele Dipasquale turns to the most adequate pool of individuals: children. And thus, the elementary students from Farfallopoli revealed a powerful alternative to the conventional human language. What need is there for words when there’s silence and sounds, movements and glances full of awe and astounding simplicity? Simply sit and savour the experience, gather the enchantment, and hopefully lose your own voice.
Info:
Nulla Due Volte: Thomas Berra, Martina Biolo, Daniele Di Girolamo, Adele Dipasquale, Antonio Fiorentino, Martin Romeo
curated by Annalisa Biggi, Isabella Falbo
26/6 – 27/9/2025
Galleria Enrico Astuni
via Iacopo Barozzi, 3 – Bologna
www.galleriaastuni.net
Ayleen Ivonne Liverani, a cultural practitioner in the fields of edu-curatorship and mediation, works between Italy and Mexico and explores the art world as a space for exploration and questioning, and as an opportunity to create and narrate alternative imaginaries.
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