Category: 2024

Floating

Selected to participate in Artcrush Gallery‘s Opening exhibition.
Listed, free to collect after subscription, on their website. Go get it!

The internal silence induced by natural beauty can even cover the excessive noise of the mind.

Après-midi

Selected to participate in NoX Gallery‘s initiative TOKYO SOLID that lands in KYOTO, at IVS 2024.
Minted on Manifold.

A summer afternoon in a north-western European park.
Appreciating the creative potential of the city and enjoying a peaceful sensation that brings us back to our younger selves. Audio on!

ArtCrush Gallery IRL opening in Brussels

In June @artcrushgallery inaugurated its physical gallery in Brussels, near beautiful Flagey Square.
I was lucky enough to have two spots in the show, for a digital (Floating) and a physical piece (Flâneuse).

The inauguration expo was at the Artcrush Gallery the whole month of June 2024.
Gallery open Tuesday – Thrusday <9.30 – 17.00> 
+ Friday – Monday by appointment only

Ch. d’Ixelles, 300 – BRUXELLES

Check out the gallery hereunder

ArtCrush Gallery & Clear Channel Collecting Treasure Hunt

From 28 May to 3 June 2024, ArtCrush exhibited 7 works by 7 Brussels artists, two different works each day, on 1000 digital billboards in Belgium, in partnership with Clear Channel.

Using QR codes on the visuals, the public was able to collect one of these 7 works each day.

“The ArtCrush Treasure Hunt aims to invite viewers on an immersive exploration of Belgian creativity through the lens of seven remarkable artists, with each artwork presenting unique perspectives and diverse creative practices of our local talent.”
be_culture

SELECTED ARTISTS
Nicolas Bets
Max Taquet
EdgeStretching

Katy Lakatos
Zoteye
Njaheut Gilles Valer
Findingabettername

<<GALLERY>>

thanks Chris Pulleyn for the last ‘greener’ shot

Extinct

Unearthing the past, confronting the future.

Presented by Obscura on Objkt.com

Text by Nina Knaack

“I don’t remember ever going to a natural history museum as a kid,” Benedetta Mucchi, an Italian digital artist who works under the name EdgeStretching, tells me. However, she recalls that through stories about dragons in her childhood, her imagination was ignited at a young age. The big creatures, with their larger-than-life characteristics and fantastical elements, have always embodied a sense of wonder and the extraordinary for her.

Promenade

Now, many years later, Mucchi calls Brussels her hometown and walks by the Natural History Museum on her way to work every day. On the walls outside the museum, there are drawings of dinosaur skeletons that invite you inside. Similar to dragons, dinosaurs captivate Mucchi’s imagination by presenting a reality that is both tangible and alien: we know that they existed, but they are creatures from a distant past, with their remains offering a glimpse into a world fundamentally different from the present.

Curiosity about the unknown, along with the educational and cultural richness creatures like dinosaurs provide, drew Mucchi to the museum. She went in and discovered that a number of the gigantic dinosaur skeletons on display were once found in the south of Belgium. “This idea of closeness, being so near the place where they had been found, made me feel as if I could now actually be standing on the ground that they once walked on,” Mucchi conveys.
And that is how the concept for a new series was formed.

> CLICK on images to enlarge

Temptation, Hunting, Cooling off

EXTINCT explores the intersection between history and contemporary existence. While envisioning a strange world where prehistoric creatures roam alongside us, EdgeStretching draws parallels between the extinction of dinosaurs and the potential fate of humanity.
Dinosaurs, once rulers of the Earth, are now relics in museums, observed by a species on the brink of repeating history. “They came before mankind, were so much bigger and more powerful, and went extinct due to natural causes; while we, as a species, are slowly but surely heading towards a self-inflicted demise,” the artist reflects.

Having studied computer graphics and animation, Mucchi worked in the audio-visual sector for many years. In her artistic practice, EdgeStretching also uses photography and video, employing a multilayered technique with the aid of Photoshop in all her artworks. For EXTINCT, she blended her original photographs of dinosaur skeletons from the museum with her diverse archive of cityscapes and landscapes. The chosen locations vary from bustling metropolises to serene nature reserves, suggesting a universality to the overall message: extinction is a fate that can touch every corner of our world.

Howling, Unconcealed, Water Dragon

Going out, Unhappy customer, Urban Nightlife, Treading lightly

By looking at this series, the humorous undertone of dinosaurs engaging in human-like spaces and behaviours quickly gives way to a chilling reflection on our self-destructive tendencies. Through EdgeStretching’s lens, the past and present collide, inviting us to think about our fragility. Above all, EXTINCT is a memo to humanity, urging us to heed the lessons of the past – before it is too late.

June 2024

Self-induced

Where
The main subjects of the work, the skeletons, are all from the Museum of Natural History in Brussels, I went and shot pictures, with their authorisation, of all the biggest and smallest ancient creatures.
The settings of the pictures are partially shot on purpose and partially from my photo archive.
Locations: Brussels, Paris, Lecce, Toronto, Como, Marrakesh, The Ninfa Reserve near Rome and Cairo.
The works are the result of a multilayered technique, done with the help of Photoshop, with minimal cleaning, retouching.
–

@Dream in New York

Promenade has been selected by Crypt Gallery for display in the collective exhibition inaugurating during NFTNYC during the whole month of April 2024.

With 25% of my NFT primary proceeds I support the #WomanLifeFreedom movement with donations to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center, a non-profit and non-governmental organization for the promotion of human rights and democracy in Iran.