April 10th - May 20th 2025
Baroque Biology
a show by Alex Valentina All living beings are, in essence, the same material, the same life, endlessly shifting from one form to another, from one perspective to the next, and from one state of existence to another.
The trace of otherness exists within us. Life is the very definition of creative becoming. Every being is a physical convergence of multiple species, and each of us becomes a carrier of multiple life forms, of countless living and long-dead entities. We end up not knowing if that organism is one or many—only to realise that in some incredible way, it is both.
All life forms feel more like processes rather than things. Existence is a perpetual act of recycling; nothing about us is entirely new. Everything comes from other bodies, other places, other times. Everything becomes a landscape. And within all this, aesthetics take form and constantly evolve. f you closely observe the genetics of any living being, you'll see everything is much more baroque than functional Midway between perfecting and contaminating, aesthetics refuse to be domesticated. Biology, like creativity, is immensely messy, caught in the constant cycle of decay, regeneration, and return.
Baroque Biology is a curated selection of Alex Valentina's works that explores these primordial concepts.
The first part is a series of digital pieces where technology is employed as a mirror for the evolutionary processes of nature—a selection of works blending prehistoric and hypermodern elements. The second part features photographs fixated on matter itself, documenting the transition from a living state to decomposition. These pieces focus on the precise moments when energy shifts from one form to another, from an organic to a mineral state and vice versa.
Like remnants found on a beach, the elements in all these pieces carry the scent of the sea and subsoil rarities—like pearls and strange shells that appear precious to the human eye, yet are merely discarded matter to nature.
Like an island left to its own flow, here the aesthetics of decomposing natural elements speak of life and regeneration, as if each new idea breathes fresh life into all those that came before it.
Biological creativity will endure, no matter what happens.
