Dominican Artists Open Milan Exhibit on Plastic and Ecological Crisis
Two Dominican artists bring a dystopia of plastic animals to Milan, inspired by Isla Saona.
Key points
- The artists are Victoria Thomen and Guadalupe Casasnovas, of the collective Pictoria Newhouse.
- The exhibit "The Plasteozoic Era: An Ecological Dystopia" is on view at Milan's Museum of Natural History.
- It will be open to the public until November 8, 2026.
- It includes historical pieces, among them three Dominican reptiles sent to Italy in the 1930s from Moca.
The Dominican collective Pictoria Newhouse, made up of architects and visual artists Victoria Thomen and Guadalupe Casasnovas, opened its exhibit "The Plasteozoic Era: An Ecological Dystopia" in Milan, Italy. The show is at the city's Museum of Natural History and will remain open to the public until November 8, 2026.
The opening drew figures from the European cultural scene, representatives of the Dominican diplomatic corps accredited in Italy, and guests from the international community.
The project combines photography, drawing, installation, video and fictional classifications. It imagines an eco-dystopian future in which real animals are gradually replaced by plastic specimens occupying altered natural landscapes. The idea came after the artists' expedition to the Laguna de los Flamencos on Isla Saona, Dominican Republic, where they saw a striking absence of real wildlife alongside an abundance of single-use waste on Caribbean shores.
The exhibit is part of the TRACCE program of the Milan City Council's Scientific Institutes and is shown alongside pieces from the museum's historical archive, including a taxidermied flamingo and three Dominican reptiles preserved in alcohol, sent to Italy in the 1930s from the municipality of Moca, Espaillat province.
Milan's city councilor for culture, Tommaso Sacchi, said the show invites the public to view the ecological crisis "not only through data and forecasts, but through a visual and narrative experience." The exhibit is backed by the Dominican Embassy in Italy, the Consulate General in Milan, the Institute of Dominicans Abroad (INDEX) and the Ministry of Tourism. The project is curated by Julian Kunhardt and produced by WUAPAH APS, with main sponsorship from SERCITEC, a Dominican engineering, architecture and project management consultancy.