Marco Vernaschi’s BIOPHILIA (2012-13) explores the increasing need for reconnection with the natural world as a necessary stage of human evolution. As humankind, we’ve had the privilege to live in a very peculiar age of transition. We’re globally facing historical moments of radical changes, in which almost every social structure has failed or is failing. Most of the dynamics that ruled our planet through the past two centuries are under fire. The disorientation resulting from this much needed chaos leads all of us to rethink and possibly to reshape our lives. In different ways, nature turns out to be the asylum in which many people look for new models of living, or simple inspiration. BIOPHILIA explores the instinctive drive behind this phenomenon, which is deeply rooted in our DNA and goes beyond any cultural or social context.

Most of the existentialistic questions can be answered through an open-minded, careful observation of the natural world, as has always been the case when humankind tries to resolve practical issues related to the structural improvement of life. For example through bionics; nature is the main inspiration to conceive, organize and craft the development of technology — the latter being the tool to build up the progress. In other words, development and progress depend on the combination of pre-existing natural structures and a series of creative interpretations of them. The same approach within bionics can be experienced when it’s about answering more complex questions, related to our own existence. In my view, we’re witnessing the transition between two ages, the Modern to the Post-Modern. The resulting sense of discomfort and confusion is leading to a massive reconnection with the essential.

Through the past three centuries, humankind has more and more focused on a frantic run toward a misinterpreted concept of progress. From the dawn of the first Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, through the consolidation of the Modern Age, humans have been busy structuring the over-exploitation of the planet, which is now exhausted. The global rape of the natural resources has defined over time, a wrong approach to life; humans behave like a virus, which sucks life out of other living beings to keep on growing. Long term, this unsustainable mechanism leads to the death of the source of life—thus, the virus perishes with its victim. In terms of approach, BIOPHILIA is based on the personal experience, while the aim is to investigate and understand, on a global scale, why humans go back to nature in times of deep crisis. In this case, the individual experience is both a narrative pretext and the element that allows the author to say something about the phenomenon.

I’m more and more attracted by the essential; the more I walk toward this direction, the more I realize how strong the role of nature is in our lives. I think that experiencing nature with a deeper perspective helps to understand more about the cosmos in which we belong. In my view, this is the only meaningful activity in life — the real reason why we’re on this planet and what keeps us alive. The rest is just an illusion.