Text by CLOT Magazine
Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin are behind Formafantasma, an Italian design studio based in Amsterdam. Their work examines the design’s ecological and political responsibilities while probing the global industries that consume natural resources. They were presenting Cambio at the Serpentine Galleries. Cambio offers a re-evaluation of our relationship with trees and poses a series of essential questions about design and sustainability, most pertinently: What can we do to understand better the connection between the objects we use and the conditions that produced them?
However, with the Serpentine Galleries closed due to the COVID-19 current situation until further notice, e-flux and Serpentine Galleries present an online screening of Formafantasma’s new film Quercus (2020), in conjunction with the exhibition Formafantasma:Cambio.
This film has been produced by manipulating a Lidar scan of an oak forest in Virginia. Lidar technology, which comes from the terms ‘light detection and ranging’, uses lasers to scan and record large surface areas and has often been used in cartography and archaeology. In Quercus, it provides an opportunity to consider humans from the point of view of the trees, with a voiceover written by philosopher and botanist Emanuele Coccia.
Quercus will be on view from Tuesday, March 24 through Tuesday, March 31, 2020, and is the first in a series of film, video, and live event collaborations to be hosted on e-flux Video and Film in the coming weeks.
