Luca Francesconi's 'Mover a Terra' at Pedro Cera, Lisbon

Italian artist Luca Francesconi (born 1979 in Mantua) presents his solo exhibition 'Mover a Terra' at Galeria Pedro Cera in Lisbon, running until March 26, 2022. The show explores themes of economic crisis, existential collapse, and humanity's lost connection to the land. Francesconi's sculptures in bronze, terracotta, and organic materials depict semi-anthropomorphic figures and root-like forms that appear uprooted yet moving toward an indefinite horizon. In the introductory text, the artist writes: 'Without return to the earth there can be no recovery of capacity.' He draws parallels between agricultural labor and primordial genesis, stating that 'the simple gesture of plowing and planting is the primordial reconstitution of Genesis.' Francesconi argues that the crisis often labeled as economic is fundamentally an existential crisis of society, and that 'moving the earth is more an act of genesis than an act of beginning.' He references Pluto as the god of agriculture in Renaissance iconography—a powerful capable man—contrasting it with the exhibition's figure: merely a man facing the immensity of cultivable land, now ideally extended to infinity. The exhibition is curated with a text by the artist himself, and the gallery is located at Rua do Patrocínio 67, Lisbon.