“I decided to dedicate an open site-specific project to Macaronesia volcanic archipelagos for their peculiar characteristic of being isolated and having preserved some of the oldest forest on the planet, alive memories of subtropical Pliocene forests and old endemic species, as witnesses of a unique landscape facing global warming”

Washingtonia Palm #3, 2022, chalk and oil pastels frottage stabilized on paper, cardboard and alluminium board, 70 x 50 cm, photo Michele Alberto Sereni, Courtesy the artist and Galleria Studio la Città Verona / Endemica – Endemismo #2, 2022, ink on paper, 70 x 50 cm, Courtesy the artist / Installation view of the exhibition IN THE FOREST LOUDLY FALLING SILENT, Galleria Studio la Città Verona, 2022/2023 Photo Michele Alberto Sereni

This project has begun in 2021 and it’s on its halfway going… Macaronesia project is a Giorgia Severi’s specific project dedicated to Atlantic Islands forests. An inner vision about textures, sounds and images of endemic species and protected plants on Macaronesia islands. A complex project composed by works on paper and canvas, ceramic sculptures, videos and sound field recordings. In four months of travelling spread in two years between 2022 and 2023 around Canary Islands and Madeira, Giorgia Severi focused this project on Laurisilva Forest, botanical gardens, natural conservation areas and other places, to talk about isolated plant species living in the middle of the windy Atlantic Ocean as iconic vegetation, rests of evergreen forests, endemic and endangered species. A vision about what is left, what is surviving and living on these special places and how it’s changing because the climate change and heavy tourism. Through her practice of securing the memory about disappearing landscapes, aware about global warming and other environmental risk factors including the anthropic action, Giorgia Severi is mapping melting glaciers and endangered vegetation species around the planet. Since she started working on environmental issues, around 2012, she focused on tree barks and rock wall textures as witnesses of living forests and melting glaciers, reworking the frottage technique that she learnt in her earlier restoration studies. Her drawings / paintings frottage works became her most famous artworks, soon followed by her sculptures by molding trunks and landscapes fragments with paper mache, terracotta and ceramics. Usually Giorgia Severi’s site specific multimedia projects include various parts and chapters to investigate the environment and the culture of the place she is doing researches about, in a respectful and collaborative process involving local communities and collaborating with National Parks.

Macaronesia #2, 2022, uv digital print on dibond board, 1/3, 150 x 122 cm, photo Gianluca Colagrossi, Courtesy the artist and Galleria Monogao21 Ravenna / Laurus, 2022, glazed ceramic, 43 x 24 x 3 cm, photo Michele Alberto Sereni, Luigi Ghirlandi Collection + Galleria La Salita Madeira / Endemica – Endemismo #1, 2022, ink on paper, 70 x 50 cm, Courtesy the artist / Dracena Drago, 2022, chalk and oil pastels frottage stabilized on paper, cardboard and alluminium board, 70 x 50 cm, photo Michele Alberto Sereni, Courtesy the artist

Installation view, Phoenix Canariensis #2, glazed ceramic, 39 x 11 x 10 cm, Courtesy the artist and Galleria Studio la Città Verona/ Phoenix Canariensis #3, glazed ceramic, 36 x 16 x 11 cm, Collection Francesco Tampieri e Anna Grazia Stefani Collection of Collections / Dracena Drago #1, 2022, ink on paper, 70 x 50 cm, Courtesy the artist /  Phoenix Canariensis #1, 2022, glazed ceramic, 47 x 15 x 8 cm, Private Collection / Dracena Drago #6, 2022, chalk and oil pastels frottage stabilized on paper, cardboard and alluminium board, 70 x 50 cm, Courtesy the artist and Galleria Studio la Città Verona, photo Michele Alberto Sereni

Macaronesia flags, 2023, triptych, frottage and mixed media on canvas, 160×140 cm each, photo Michele Alberto Sereni, Courtesy the artist

Thanks to

Luigi Ghirlandi, Galleria la Salita Madeira, Davide Servadei, Gatti ceramic workshop Faenza, Galleria Studio la Città Verona, Luca Donelli, Galleria Monogao21, Magazzeno Art Gallery, Matteo Silvagni, Michele Alberto Sereni e Natascia Giulivi, Gianluca Colegrossi, Caludio Galli, Multigraph Misano Adriatico

Jardìn Botànico Icod De Los Vinos, Tenerife / J.Rubens Borgeas Fajardo, Empresa Municipal de Desarrollo Economìco, Empleo Turismo y Ocio “ICODTESA”. Excmo Ayuntamento Icod De Los Vinos, Tenerife / Parque Rural de Anaga Medio Ambiente Tenerife / Gustavo Domìnguez General Director Medio Ambiente Tenerife / Carmen Garcia de la Cruz, ranger and environmental guide at Anaga Park / Ivan Mamely Gonzàles Medio Ambiente Tenerife