The 15th edition of the Festa del Cactus is taking place in a year that will go down in history for the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the pandemic that has affected the lives of billions of people around the world and has also left its mark on our event.
Lots of changes, such as the requirement to measure body temperature and release of one’s personal details that many had already experienced elsewhere, along with the novelty of the new venue where we held the event, the large greenhouse of the Memorial Museum of Liberty and which, it is likely, will remain the place to be for future editions.
A highly desired event, after months of quarantine that forced nurseries to close and enthusiasts to online shopping, with no more opportunity for human contact.
Fifteen is the number of years since the first edition was held here. We have discovered that the Kabbalistic meaning of this number is that of theunion of people in one’s family and community. The energy of this issue is expressed in the perpetual exchange of give-and-take in both emotional and social life. In number fifteen, ideas are born that lead to the improvement of world welfare.
In short, the purpose of this Festa del Cactus was to bring people together again—albeit with the necessary precautions—to escape the isolation caused by fear.
We believe we have achieved our goal.
Copiapoa
Born as a joke, the initiative to present the Copiapoa genus in all its beauty was perhaps the most challenging part of organizing the event. Thanks to the willingness of our Argentine friends Cesar Cabero and Carlos Quevedo and Marco Giani, a well-known specialist in the genus the exhibition Copiapoa, Patriarchs of the Andes showed in all their glory some of the world’s most beautiful species of cacti, portrayed in their natural habitats.
With this installation, the Festa del Cactus aims to once again denounce the deplorable phenomenon of the illegal harvesting of plants from their natural habitats—carried out by thieves and unscrupulous individuals—which every year causes significant damage to natural populations of rare succulent plants, already severely affected by climate change and human activities.
Huge was the satisfaction of obtaining, for this photo exhibit, the support of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Species Conservation Commission (SSC), Group of Experts in Cacti and Succulent Plants.
It was only later that she turned her focus to staged portraiture, beginning to create more structured and narrative-driven projects.
She earned her degree from the DAMS program in Bologna while simultaneously attending the photography program at the National Experimental Center for Cinema, from which she graduated in 2019.
