Aterraterra

Curated by Maria Rosa Sossai

Book design Carla Selva Matthes and Paul Zech in Shared Practice

Translations Dominic McElwee

Project editor Michela Palermo

256 pages, 16 images

Softcover, 11.5 × 18 cm

Bilingual edition ITA/ENG

ISBN 978-88-947117-8-3

Printed in Italy, in an edition of 500 copies

Palermo Publishing announces the release of Ecosistemi connessi. Museo e Comunità Post-varietali, a volume developed from the project of the same name curated by Maria Rosa Sossai and carried out in 2025 by the artistic duo Aterraterra (Fabio Aranzulla and Luca Cinquemani) for the Museo Civico di Castelbuono.

The book documents a research process that examines the relationship between human and vegetal worlds through artistic, ecological, and community-based practices. Central to the project is the activation of a post-varietal tomato community within the Orto dell’arte of the Museo Civico di Castelbuono, generated by the encounter of twenty-five wild and cultivated species. An architectural device, designed in collaboration with Elena Catalano, accompanied the hybridization process, transforming the garden into a fluid and evolving ecosystem.

The volume gathers critical texts, scientific materials, photographs, and documentation of the public activities that shaped the project, expanding its dialogue with communities, institutions, and visitors. Conceived as a collective narrative, it reflects on the museum as a living organism sustained by multispecies connections.

Contributions by
Laura Barreca · Maria Rosa Sossai · Aterraterra · Ginevra Ludovici · Alice Labor · Anastasia Lobanova · Federico Musciotto · Valentina Bruschi · Eliza Collin · Institute for Postnatural Studies · Felice Moramarco

ATERRATERRA is a duo formed by Fabio Aranzulla and Luca Cinquemani, whose multidisciplinary research operates at the intersection of art, agriculture, and science. Their artistic practice addresses themes related to multispecies relationships, forms of genetic discipline in agriculture, and post-agricultural and post-linguistic perspectives. The duo also investigates the cultural boundaries of edibility, the difficult heritage of cultivated plants, and the consequences of the climate crisis.

The publication is supported by PAC2024 – Piano per l’Arte Contemporanea, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.