From 28 February to 4 May 2025, Museo La Specola will host the exhibition Terra Incognita. Works by Arianna Fioratti Loreto, conceived by the artist and curated in collaboration with Marco Masseti, inspired by the science fiction story of the same name on which the two authors collaborated (Edizioni Polistampa).
On display are 70 works that celebrate the natural and animal world using the ancient technique of ink drawing on paper with cross-hatching. There are medium and large drawings inspired by Greek, Central American and Asian mythology, such as the Hydra, the Dragon, Ouroboros, Cipactli and Quetzalcoatl, as well as pure fantasy, such as the Elephant Bee, the Bear Bear, the Boar Fish and the All-Seeing Starfish. Even extinct species have a place in this fantasy world, such as the terror bird, the woolly mammoth, the sabre-toothed tiger and the elephant bird, in an unlikely conversation between the real and the interpreted with fossilised siblings.
With lines and cross-hatching reminiscent of ancient engravings, the subjects come to life with a contemporary vision. The details are explored in an attempt to give an inner life to the representation of a long-extinct creature, where the stark contrast of black and white somehow gives the creatures a vital force: it is a journey through fantasy, palaeontology and the mythological beasts of ancient cultures, constituting a new world or Terra Incognita.
