At the Palazzo dei Congressi in Lugano on the occasion of NFT Fest 2023.
At the Palazzo dei Congressi in Lugano, the inscription “Art Will Save The World” on the façade fits inside Yuri Catania‘s giant street art work created with the paste-up technique during the five-day NFT Fest.
A work that questions the nature/technology connection made with the participation of City of Lugano apprentices and citizen volunteers. For each ephemeral flower pasted on the wall, new flowers will be born in the city to create a green area dedicated to this work.
At the invitation of NFT Fest Artistic Director Roberto Gorini, Yuri Catania builds a work that challenges the very theme of NFTs, blockchain, and the metaverse with the place and varied nature enshrined in Ciani Park. The project stems from photographs that Yuri Catania took at night to capture plants and flowers in the park, which then became the setting for his astronauts, symbols of contemporary heroes leading thehumanityà in space through technology: a mission that will have to be accomplished in respect and dialogue with nature for the survival of the future of life on our planet.
The site-specific installation is 42 meters long and 8 meters high, with the main astronaut inspired by Claude Nicollier who successfully completed 4 space missions, navigating for more than 1,000 hours in space. The unique work is biodegradable, made with paper, glue and water-based inks, and “will be alive” thanks to augmented reality with photo and video content that can be accessed through smartphones.
The implementation of the project was supported by the City’s urban laboratory “Lugano Living Lab”, which oversaw all technological and innovative aspects of the work and actively involved the population.
