Anadyomene. Born from the Water

Anadyomene. Nascente dall'acqua by Roberto Ghezzi
Lavatoi pubblici di Rio, Elba
Opening: Saturday 18 July 2026, 6.00 pm
Exhibition | Elba Book Festival 2026 | 12th edition | Naviganti 

Curated by S.M.AR.T. – the Tuscan Archipelago Museum System

Roberto Ghezzi's Naturografie emerge from the waters of the Tuscan Archipelago and come ashore at the historic wash-houses of Rio for the first public showing of the project Anadyomene. Nascente dall'acqua, presented as the exhibition of the 12th edition of the Elba Book Festival, dedicated to the theme of seafarers.

The dialogue between Ghezzi's project and the theme chosen by Elba Book for 2026 is immediate and necessary. Seafarers do not govern the sea: they read it, listen to it, allow for uncertainty. They accept the crossing as the very condition of movement. This is precisely the gaze the artist from Cortona brings to the waters of the archipelago: not a conquest of the landscape, but a prolonged, patient, scientific act of listening. His works do not represent nature; they let it act, in a gesture that is at once artistic creation and a relinquishing of control. As the artist himself writes: "I prepare the supports and then I step aside. I let nature perform the gesture."

Anadyomene — "born from the sea" — is one of the epithets of Aphrodite, and in popular mythology it is from the goddess's necklace that the seven islands of the archipelago are born: seven pearls fallen into the sea which, rather than sinking, rise to the surface. A legend of seafarers and of waters, of losses that become places, of unforeseen routes that transform the landscape forever.

Among the aims of the project is that of highlighting the connections between the territory and the sites of historical, artistic and naturalistic interest that the archipelago offers in all their richness and variety. It combines the gaze of myth, from which the title originates, with the languages of contemporary art, revealing itself in works that emerge from the brackish and fresh waters of the archipelago through a process unique of its kind, one that restores the otherwise invisible image of underwater landscapes.

The works on show at the wash-houses of Rio are Naturografie©, a term coined by the artist to define a process in which nature itself leaves its trace upon eco-sustainable supports immersed in water for long periods. Moisture, minerals, light, microscopic organisms, sediments: everything the environment contains becomes pictorial matter. The final work is not the artist's in the conventional sense: it is the product of a pact between a person and a place, in which the artist has set the conditions and nature has exercised its own freedom.

During the residency, carried out in 2024 as an artistic and scientific project promoted by S.M.AR.T. – the Tuscan Archipelago Museum System, Ghezzi installed six canvases in strategic locations chosen together with scientists and other specialists on the basis of their scientific interest, involving the brackish, thermal and freshwater environments of the Tuscan islands: on Elba, the red lake of Le Conche near Rio Marina, within the Mining Park; in the municipality of Capoliveri, the small harbour of the Gulf of Mola and the water basin of the Ginevro Mines, 54 metres below sea level; in Portoferraio, the Terme di San Giovanni thermal baths; the harbour of the island of Capraia; and that of Cala Maestra on the island of Montecristo, a State nature reserve managed by the Carabinieri Biodiversity Unit of Follonica, which for the first time in its history has hosted an artistic installation.

After an immersion period of around three months, the canvases were recovered, opening the phase of scientific study of the sampled fabrics and waters, conducted by the CNR of Pisa and by the biologist Guido Silvano of the University of Bologna. The results of this study will form part of the exhibition and of the project's subsequent developments. The union of art and science, a cornerstone of Ghezzi's expressive research, has accompanied the project throughout, overseen by the S.M.AR.T. scientific and technical committee, composed of researchers, university lecturers, officials of the Superintendencies, archaeologists, geologists, historians of contemporary art, palaeontologists, architects and museologists.

The public wash-houses of Rio, with their basin of running water at the centre and the light filtering through the arched windows, are the ideal setting for this landfall: a historic space in which water has always had a vital, communal function, and which today welcomes works born of the archipelago's own waters.

The exhibition will remain open to the public at the Riese wash houses until 20 August.

Free admission from 8.00 am to 9.00 pm.

The programme features a series of talks and guided tours of the exhibition, led by the director of the Tuscan Archipelago Museum Network, Dr Valentina Anselmi, together with the artistic director of the Italo Bolano Open Air Museum, Erica Romano:

→ Tuesday 4 August, 7.00 pm

→ Friday 7 August, 7.00 pm

→ Thursday 13 August, 7.00 pm

On Wednesday 19 August at 9.30 pm, at the Italo Bolano Open Air Museum, there will be a talk with the artist Roberto Ghezzi.

Thereafter, under the scientific protocol signed by the director of S.M.AR.T. and the head of the Musei Civici di Siena, the project will be exhibited in Siena in early 2027.

"The result is works in which nature and landscape authentically manifest themselves, setting in motion an unprecedented dialogue between art, science and ecology."
Roberto Ghezzi

Roberto Ghezzi (1978, Cortona, Italy).

His training began in the family's sculpture studio and continued at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence. He began exhibiting in the 1990s, with his early work rooted in painting. In recognition of the scientific value of his research, he has collaborated with research institutes and universities in Italy and abroad, including CNR ISP, CNR ISMAR, CNR IOM and ARPA.

Recent exhibitions include PADIGLIONE ITALIA – 19th ARCHITECTURE BIENNALE, curated by Guendalina Salimei (Venice); GREENLAND BLURRING, curated by Mara Predicatori, Italian Cultural Institute in Copenhagen (Copenhagen); THE MOUNTAIN'S EYES, Gallery MCube (Kathmandu); WHITE FADES, curated by Mara Predicatori, Italian Cultural Institute in Oslo (Oslo); Life on mARTS, curated by CasermArcheologica, Natural History Museum of Crete (Heraklion); THYBRIS, IL FIUME ETERNO, curated by Davide Silvioli and Cristian Porretta, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome; L'IMPRONTA DELL'ACQUA, curated by Mara Predicatori, Museo di Palazzo della Corgna, Castiglione del Lago; AQUAE, curated by Start Cultura and EContemporary, Fondaco dei Tedeschi, Venice, IT (2023); CONTEMPORARY ECOSYSTEMS, curated by Bojana Janeva and Davide Silvioli, Museum of Contemporary Art of Skopje.

Principal artist residencies and international expeditions include Iceland Still, central Iceland (2025); Legarti, Ulassai, IT (2025); The Mountain's Eyes, Annapurna Base Camp, Nepal (2024); Life on mARTS, Crete, EL (2024); The Polar Stream, Longyearbyen – Svalbard Islands, NO (2023); The Greenland Project, in collaboration with CNR ISP, Tasiilaq, GRL (2022); North Macedonia Project – Art As Nature, Skopje, NMK (2022); L'Planeta de Origen, Ushuaia, ARG (2019); Kunstkvarteret Artist House, Lofoten Islands – Leknes, NO (2019); OAW, Tunis and Hergla, TUN (2018); South Africa Project, Blyde River Canyon and Mossel Bay, ZA (2018); Alaska Project, Talkeetna, McCarthy, Alaska, USA (2015).