The exhibition "The Earth is Blue as an Orange. The Mystery of Research ," created by the VIMM – Veneto Institute of Molecular Medicine to mark its thirtieth anniversary, was inaugurated on Wednesday, May 27 , at the Museum of Nature and Mankind at the University of Padua.
Inspired by Paul Éluard's famous verse, the exhibition stems from the idea that art and science share a common striving toward the invisible and a common need to give form to the mystery of reality. Scientific truth and poetic truth are not opposed, but rather engage in a dialogue through images, insights, hypotheses, and visions capable of broadening our understanding of the world.
The first temporary exhibition hosted by the Museum of Nature and Mankind, the exhibition was inaugurated in the presence of curator Sylvain Bellenger, President of the Foundation for Advanced Biomedical Research – VIMM Giustina Destro, Rector of the University of Padua Daniela Mapelli, and President of the Veneto Regional Council Luca Zaia.
The exhibition, created with the contribution of the Cariparo Foundation, brings together works of art and anatomical images (by Rebecca Horn, Ketty La Rocca, Achille Funi), ancient volumes such as Vesalius's De humani corporis fabrica from 1543, digital reconstructions and scientific visualizations obtained with images produced in the VIMM laboratories, where cellular structures and neuronal networks take on forms that seem to belong as much to the language of science as to that of abstract art.
From painting to microscopy, from anatomy to digital technologies, the exhibition explores the central role of images in the construction of knowledge and invites the public to reflect on the relationship between scientific observation and artistic imagination. Completing the exhibition is a large, site-specific multimedia installation created by Stefano Gargiulo of Kaos Produzioni, which takes visitors on an immersive experience of images, light, and matter.
The exhibition is also part of the broader "Padua City of Science" initiative, which unites the Museum of Nature and Mankind, the Botanical Garden, and Palazzo del Bo as symbolic places of the history of scientific research and the study of the human body.