Cesare Pietroiusti's Evolving Exhibition at Spazio Murat in Bari

Cesare Pietroiusti's exhibition 'Agenti patogeni e morfogenesi del disegno' at Spazio Murat in Bari features 3,000 blank sheets of paper that will be transformed by natural processes—salt crystallization, iron oxidation (rust), and Aspergillus niger mold—before the closing date of September 9. Curated by Jens Hauser, the show delegates artistic agency to physical, chemical, and biological phenomena, with the artist only setting initial conditions. Pietroiusti distinguishes between traditional drawing, where mental image precedes execution, and his method where form emerges from non-human agents and is recognized afterward. At the exhibition's end, the signed sheets will be donated to visitors. This work extends Pietroiusti's decades-long practice of relational art, which includes actions like ingesting banknotes and trading works for ideas, challenging authorship and conventional economic exchange.