Gaia Fugazza

Gaia Fugazza’s work bridges objects, performances, and ritualistic practices to explore embodied knowledge, challenging traditional divisions between body and mind, as well as between humans and the broader environment. Rejecting anthropocentrism, she represents plants, animals, minerals, and natural elements as equally sentient beings. Her figures emerge from lived experience, direct observation, and intuitive engagement, their forms shaped through processes that tap into the unconscious via creative making. Fugazza draws on experimental methods inspired by ancient craft traditions, emphasizing the transmission of knowledge through material practice. Her materials—whether carved, burned, waxed, or painted—interact with figurative forms, each imbued with metaphorical significance, chosen both for their performative qualities and contemporary resonance. Her compositions form intricate constellations, extending everyday observations into archetypal patterns that connect themes such as transcendental practices, plant intelligence, gender, reproduction, nomadism, and technology. These works avoid linear narratives, instead evoking cyclical histories and recurring motifs across different mediums, where each material perspective emphasizes distinct qualities of the same concept. In performance, Fugazza orchestrates moments that oscillate between attention and distraction, inviting audiences into collaborative experiments or ritualized encounters. These participatory acts cultivate self-awareness and collective presence, immersing viewers in an animist landscape where all beings share agency and significance. ...