Oltre Terra – We can never touch without being touched in return.
Oltre Terra, transhumance, narrates the journey of men and sheep across the soil and, by extension, the built environment. Studio Formafantasma explores the intricate interdependence between humans and animals, challenging the boundary between tamer and tamed. Wool serves as the threshold of the evolutionary tale of men and sheep’s mutual relationship, an intertwining of living beings interwoven in wool strands.
Natural ecosystems hinge on cooperation between species, as animals and plants rely on each other for survival. The plant nourishes the lamb while the lamb disperses the plant’s seeds, fostering its growth. For centuries, humans relied on sheep for food and fibre while sheep on humans for protection. Wool grew on humans as a second skin, providing thermal insulation and water repellence. Shielded by wool, humans progressively reached physical and evolutionary milestones once considered unattainable. Growing in size, humans grew in power and retracted from the agreement of mutual care, the one that once grouped them in the same flock.
Studio Formafantasma’s Oltre Terra traces the evolution of co-domestication between mankind and sheep, inquiring the relation between technological evolution and biological development. Did the sheep stop moulting or did they lose the ability to moult due to humans shearing them periodically? From shears and shepherds’ crooks to genetics online database, the crescendo of the exhibition showcases how sheep slowly twist into commodities for maximising production. Sheep become clay, shaped geometrically by human cupidity. Skin folds multiply exponentially, together with infections and parasites. A living entity has been reduced to a symbol of men’s wealth, by the old rule “bigger is better”. Throughout technological and scientific development, humans got a hold of sheep genetic pools – now profit and productivity dictate sheep genetic evolution. An entire life-strain whose genome sequences mirror market demand.
Oltre Terra reunites tamer and tamed in an immersive experience composed of a wide range of interconnected clues, spanning from visual to audio to tactile. The exhibition culminates with the video 2023 installation Tactile Afferents by Joanna Piotrowska and Formafantasma. Through touch, gestures, proximity and feel, the film portrays the unspoken and ancestral modes of communication between beings. The artwork conceptualises touch as a new lingua franca, where sheep and men can meet again, since one can never touch without being touched in return. The visitor, astonished, is left to wonder: why can’t we no longer synchronise with nature, although we are ourselves part of nature? Eleonora Mura 11th April 2025
Oltre Terra continues at Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum until 13th July
