Machines are no longer mere tools. They have become part of the vital cycle and mutate like organisms, blurring the categories of what is natural and what is not.
This theme delves into ideas of growth, evolution, and the kinetic energy within structures, both organic and inorganic, reflecting on the dynamic processes of life and mechanical operations. It reflects on how structures, whether biological or synthetic, evolve and adapt through internal and external forces, embodying the continuous movement and energy characteristic of life and mechanization. At its core lies fire, the primal symbol of energy, combustion, and metamorphosis: following the initial cosmic expansion, it becomes the vital breath that propels relentless change, it consumes the old to birth the new, turning rigidity into fluid eruption and stasis into incandescent motion. Fire is destruction and creation intertwined, the force that shapes matter while forever escaping complete control.
Buildings on fire. 2025. Interactive installation.
More than a physical element, fire has always served as a profound metaphor for transformation. From the Promethean myth—where stolen fire grants humanity knowledge, technology, and civilization, yet invites retribution and hubris—to modern visions of innovation where controlled combustion powers progress while uncontrolled flames signal existential risk, fire embodies duality: origin of advancement and harbinger of chaos.
To expand is to burn: form is born from the ashes of what dissolves, and every dissolution carries within it the seed of a new configuration.
