Among the many challenges contemporary art faces today, one of the most fascinating is the ability to investigate time – not only human time but geological, cosmic and deep time. With his exhibition The Last Wonderful Minute (L’Ultimo Meraviglioso Minuto) at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, artist Pietro Ruffo takes us on a journey spanning millions of years, from prehistory to the Anthropocene, reflecting on our fragility as a species and the extraordinary story of the planet we inhabit. Using a language that combines aesthetics and critique, Pietro Ruffo creates a visual narrative in which past and future intertwine, inviting us to confront the indelible mark we leave on Earth and the possibilities of building a new relationship with the environment. His works go beyond observing the present; they propose a new awareness of time as a fluid and layered element. In this exclusive interview, Pietro Ruffo discusses the motivations and meanings behind his works, his connection with the concept of wonder and the collective responsibility we all share in the face of the environmental crisis. This dialogue offers fresh perspectives, encouraging us to look “beneath the surface” of the Earth to rediscover our relationship with it.

Pietro Ruffo, 2024, Portrait by Giorgio Benni

Micol Di Veroli: Your exhibition, “The Last Wonderful Minute”, invites us on a journey through the eras of our planet, from prehistory to the Anthropocene. In a time when the perception of the past seems blurred by the urgency of the present, what does it mean for you to restore the wonder of remote geological time to the audience?
Pietro Ruffo: The idea of exploring deep geological time stems from the desire to make the audience reflect on the fact that we live on a planet in constant transformation. Each phase of its history has given rise to completely different realities, and it was only after the fifth mass extinction that conditions emerged which made our existence possible. This awareness invites us to see our presence as a brief instant in the scale of geological time – an extraordinary but fragile moment. Restoring the wonder of this remote past means emphasizing how our existence is the result of a precarious and unrepeatable balance.

Pietro Ruffo. “L’ultimo meraviglioso minuto”, installation view at Palazzo Esposizioni Roma

The concept of wonder pervades the entire exhibition but is rooted in a contemporary context marked by environmental crisis. How does your art aim to restore an emotional and intellectual connection with the planet, blending aesthetics with critical reflection?
The key point is not that we are destroying the planet, but that we are destroying our own ability to survive as a species on it. This distinction is crucial: the Earth has survived five mass extinctions and will continue to endure, but our actions are endangering the conditions that make our existence possible. My art seeks to push the audience to reflect on this reality and to question how we can change our behavior to ensure the survival of our species. We live in a complex era, soon to host ten billion people – a miracle in itself, considering that as Homo sapiens, we are a young species, burning brightly like a match for a brief geological moment. But it is precisely in our capacity to imagine, create and act that lies the possibility of reinventing ourselves. In this context, wonder becomes a force that unites emotion and intellect. Through this connection, we can rediscover our belonging to the planet and start new ways of coexisting with it. Wonder is not just contemplation but a catalyst for imagining a different future.

Pietro Ruffo, “L’ultimo meraviglioso minuto”, installation view at Palazzo Esposizioni Roma

In the second room, you explore the Anthropocene, an epoch that marks humanity’s indelible footprint on Earth. As an artist, how do you interpret the moral weight of this epoch, and how can art contribute to a new understanding of our planetary impact?
Perhaps the clearest marker of the Anthropocene is cement, produced in billions of tons every year, representing the largest amount of anthropogenic rock on the Earth’s crust. The word “cement”, derived from the Latin *con crescere* (to grow together), embodies this dual nature: on one hand, it symbolizes humanity’s impact on the planet; on the other, it represents our capacity to create spaces for abstract thought and collective reflection. In the gallery dedicated to this epoch, I examined whether abstract thought is something unique to Homo sapiens or also shared by our Neanderthal cousins. The Anthropocene is an era of responsibility and contradictions, and art can transform its moral weight into a tool of awareness, prompting us to imagine alternative ways of inhabiting the planet.

Pietro Ruffo, “Il Giardino Planetario”, 2024, in collaboration with Noruwei, installation view at Palazzo Esposizioni Roma

The video installation “The Planetary Garden” is inspired by Gilles Clément’s concept of the Earth as a garden in constant transformation. What role does the garden metaphor play in your artistic vision, and how does this idea connect to the flow of time and the continuous reshaping of terrestrial landscapes?
The title of the video installation, created in collaboration with Noruwei, is inspired by Gilles Clément, but it is the word “garden” that captures my attention. “Garden” evokes the idea of tamed nature, transformed by humans to meet their needs. This is what we have sought to do for the past 300,000 years: make nature less wild, more like our image, transforming nearly every centimeter of the lands around us. The video explores this tension, showing landscapes from the past intertwined with visions of an imagined future, creating an overlap of times and spaces. Like a palimpsest, these landscapes make visible how diverse climates and natural environments are mutable and how our intervention has contributed to these changes. The garden metaphor thus becomes a lens for observing our relationship with nature – not simply one of domination or exploitation but a complex layering of influences, transformations, and responsibilities. Through this installation, I aim to provoke reflection on our impact and how the flow of time, both geological and human, is an integral part of the ongoing reshaping of Earth’s landscapes. It is an invitation to view the Earth as a living organism, constantly evolving, and to reconsider our role in this transformation.

Pietro Ruffo, “L’ultimo meraviglioso minuto”, installation view at Palazzo Esposizioni Roma

The final gallery brings us back to Rome, but a Rome that emerges and transforms through a fusion of historical maps and imagined natural landscapes. How did you tackle the challenge of representing a city that embodies the stratification of human and natural time, and what meaning do you attribute to this interplay?
As an architect by training, I have always been fascinated by how Rome’s architectural layers tell stories of civilizations and transformations. In this gallery, however, I wanted to go further, incorporating the city’s geological stratifications as well. I began with a painting by Alfonso di Pasquale, housed in the Museum of Civilizations in Rome, which depicts the Tiber Valley populated by hippopotamuses, elephants, and, inside a cave, three Neanderthals. This scene speaks of a time when Rome was a wild landscape, very different from the city we know today. This interplay of historical maps, natural landscapes, and geological evidence invites us to reflect on how the territory we inhabit has changed and how it might transform again in the future. It could once again become a landscape dominated by volcanoes, submerged by waters, or populated by entirely different fauna. Rome’s stratification is not just an archive of the past but a window into future possibilities, an invitation to imagine a city in continuous metamorphosis.

Pietro Ruffo, “Antropocene (Saccopastore)”, 2024, oil and cutouts on paper laid on canvas, 168,5 × 301 cm, installation view at Palazzo Esposizioni Roma

Curator Sébastien Delot writes that to understand the infancy of our planet, we must look “beneath the surface” of the Earth. This invites reflection on a conception of nature as something alive and constantly changing. As an artist, how do you interpret the idea of a living, pulsating Earth, and what can this perspective teach us about our presence on it? Is it possible, in your view, to transform the awareness of our fragility into a sense of collective responsibility?
The idea of a living Earth fascinates me deeply. Its ability to regenerate and transform after catastrophic events reminds us of how resilient it is – but also of how indifferent it is to our existence. The awareness of our fragility, if communicated effectively, can become a driving force for collective responsibility. It is not just about saving the planet; it is about safeguarding the conditions that allow us to live. The Earth has already survived five mass extinctions and will endure more. Our goal must be to prevent the Anthropocene from becoming a prelude to our extinction, instead imagining a future where our impact is balanced and sustainable.

Micol Di Veroli

Info:

Pietro Ruffo. L’ultimo meraviglioso minuto (The Last Wonderful Minute)
29/10/2024 – 16/02/2025
curated by Sébastien Delot
Palazzo Esposizioni Roma
via Nazionale 194, Roma
www.palazzoesposizioniroma.it

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is a contemporary art magazine since 1980