Museo Riso – Regional Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Palermo, Palazzo Belmonte Riso, Via Vittorio Emanuele 365 – Palermo 28 January 2026 at 6.00 pm Contemporary Conversations #1 curated by Diego Mantoan, Chair of Contemporary Art History, Department of Humanities, University of Palermo.

The Castelbuono Civic Museum is pleased to present ‘Dialogue with Aterraterra’ at the Riso Museum – Regional Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Palermo. The event marks the launch of a series of conversations organised by the Chair of Contemporary Art History at the Department of Humanities, University of Palermo, curated by Diego Mantoan. The series will feature in-depth discussions with leading figures from the national and international art scene.

The first event, in collaboration with the Civic Museum of Castelbuono (PA), hosted at RISO – Regional Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Palermo, presents to the public the book Postvarietal Community by the artistic duo Aterraterra (Fabio Aranzulla and Luca Cinquemani), published by Palermo Publishing, produced as part of Ecosistemi Connessi. ‘Museum and Postvarietal Communities’ is the winning project of PAC2024 – Plan for Contemporary Art, supported by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture. The conversation is led by Diego Mantoan, with contributions from Evelina De Castro, Director of the RISO Museum, Laura Barreca, Director of the Civic Museum of Castelbuono, Maria Rosa Sossai, curator of the project, and the artist duo Aterraterra (Fabio Aranzulla and Luca Cinquemani). The book includes contributions by Laura Barreca, Aterraterra, Valentina Bruschi, Eliza Collin, Alice Labor, Anastasia Lobanova and Federico Musciotto, Ginevra Ludovici, the Institute for Postnatural Studies, Felice Moramarco and Maria Rosa Sossai. It brings together critical essays, scientific materials, photographs and documentation of the public activities that have animated the entire project and broadened the dialogue with communities, institutions and visitors: a manifesto of coexistence in which the museum becomes an active part of a complex ecosystem.

BIOGRAPHIES
Aterraterra is a duo comprising Fabio Aranzulla and Luca Cinquemani, whose multidisciplinary practice intersects art, agriculture and science. Aterraterra’s research explores the possibility of forms of cultivation and food production that are critical of forms of power and conscious of their own anthropocentrism. Aterraterra’s artistic projects address issues relating to multispecies relationships, forms of genetic discipline in industrial agriculture, post-agricultural and post-linguistic perspectives, foraging as a practice of resistance, and the ever-shifting cultural boundary of the concept of edibility. The duo also investigates the ‘difficult heritage’ of food plants, the relationship between cultural institutions and non-human life forms, and the ecological transformations brought about by climate change. The duo’s works, workshops and food performances include: Hybridising Scentscapes, in collaboration with Eliza Collin, Design Museum, London; Not From Here: Plant Migrations and Human Narratives, Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt; Someone told us a story about nature and purity, ZACentrale, Fondazione Merz, Palermo; Foodscape 5, Photoforum Pasquart, Biel/Bienne.

Diego Mantoan is an associate professor of Contemporary Art History at the University of Palermo and is one of the main contributors to Wikiradio – Le voci della storia on Rai Radio3. He writes for Burlington Contemporary, Artribune and doppiozero. He has collaborated with the Venice Biennale, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the Sigmar Polke Estate, the Julia Stoschek Foundation, Douglas Gordon studio, ArtVerona and the Mario Rimoldi Museum.

The exhibition Postvarietal Communities by Aterraterra (Fabio Aranzulla and Luca Cinquemani), curated by Maria Rosa Sossai, is on view at the Museo Civico di Castelbuono until 1 February 2026.

This initiative is part of the project ‘Ecosistemi Connessi: Museo e Comunità Post-Varietali’ by the Aterraterra collective (Fabio Aranzulla and Luca Cinquemani), curated by Maria Rosa Sossai, winner of the PAC2024 public call – Plan for Contemporary Art by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture.