Pietro Ruffo's 'L'ultimo meraviglioso minuto' at Palazzo delle Esposizioni Reimagines the Anthropocene

Pietro Ruffo's exhibition 'L'ultimo meraviglioso minuto' at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, curated by Sébastien Delot, director of the Musée National Picasso-Paris collection, reinterprets the Anthropocene through a cosmic perspective inspired by Carl Sagan's 'cosmic calendar.' The show opens with 'Le monde avant la création de l'homme,' a monumental immersive environment featuring a 700 sqm curtain drawn in bic pen depicting a Primordial Forest, and a Grand Canyon painted in ink on canvas using the camaïeu technique. Behind it float 21 circular works titled 'De Hortus' representing ancient plant traces. The exhibition draws on research by paleoclimatologist Rebecca Wragg Sykes, who contributed a catalog essay, and references Camille Flammarion's 1886 text. Other rooms explore human creativity through ink-on-canvas works with cutouts, and the video 'The Planetary Garden,' created with Noruwei and inspired by Gilles Clément's book. The final section, 'Antropocene attraverso le stratificazioni di Roma,' reworks maps by Giovanni Battista Nolli (1701-1756) and Luigi Canina (1775-1856) to imagine Rome's wild past and future. Ruffo stated he aims to highlight human wonder and the ability to change course. The exhibition runs until February 16, 2025. Guido Rebecchini and Sofia Di Gravio also contributed catalog texts. Ivana Della Porta, vice president of PalaExpo, praised Ruffo's optimistic vision.