Maria Cristina Finucci's immersive installation on ocean plastic pollution opens at Milan's Natural History Museum

Maria Cristina Finucci's immersive installation 'Dentro la Metamorfosi' opened to the public on April 14 at the Museo di Storia Naturale di Milano. Curated by Marcello Farabegoli, the exhibition runs until November 8, 2026, coinciding with Milano Art Week. The work addresses urgent environmental crises through plastic pollution in oceans, featuring inflatable translucent environments that visitors physically enter. Artificial intelligence technology simulates plastic fragmentation and recomposition, building on Finucci's 2023 experiments at CY-FEST in Yerevan. Produced by Fondazione Marevivo, the installation launches the 'Tracce' cycle, a four-year project promoted by the Istituti Scientifici del Comune. Finucci, an architect trained at the University of Florence, founded the symbolic Garbage Patch State in 2013 to represent plastic islands in oceans, gaining visibility at UNESCO, the UN, and the Venice Biennale. In 2022, she established Fondazione Finucci ETS to strengthen connections between artistic practice and civic engagement. Marevivo, active since 1985 in marine protection, plays a central role, with president Rosalba Giugni emphasizing plastic as a symbol of a model needing rethinking. The exhibition transforms aesthetic seduction into awareness of destructive material impacts, highlighting millions of tons of waste entering seas annually, threatening biodiversity, food security, and climate balance.