Extinct

Unearthing the past, confronting the future.

Presented by Obscura on Objkt.com

Text by Nina Knaack

> CLICK on images to enlarge

“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.

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.
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