De Natura Fossilium by Studio Formafantasma
Updated: Jan 29, 2020
Mount Etna is a mine without miner.It is excavating itself to expose its raw materials. Studio Formafantasma, in collaboration with Gallery Libby Sellers, present De Natura Fossilium,an investigation into the culture of lava in the Mount Etna and Stromboli regions of Sicily, two of the last active volcanoes in Europe.
With ‘De Natura Fossilium’,they investigate the cultures surrounding this particularly Sicilian experience to bring both the landscape and the forces of nature together as facilities for production. Formafantasma questions the link between tradition and local culture and the relationship between objects and the idea of cultural heritage. De Natura Fossilium is a project that refuses to accept locality as touristic entertainment. Instead, the work of Formafantasma is a different expedition in which the landscape is not passively contemplated but restlessly sampled, melted, blown, woven, cast and milled. From the more familiar use of basalt stone to their extreme experiments with lava in the production of glass and the use of volcanic fibers for textile, Formafantasma’s explorations and the resulting objects realise the full potential of the lava as a material for design.
Geometric volumes have been carved from basalt and combined with fissure-like structural brass elements to produce stools, coffee tables and a clock.
