On the 4th of March, exhibition Hug by Laura Pugno (IT) opened its doors at Nida Art Colony’s temporary project space Kiosk. 

The Hug is part of Laura Pugno’s ongoing project Mis-Love that the artist is investigating during the residency at Nida Art Colony.

The project started with an analysis of the recently increasing attention that the media of the printed press (the Trendsetters Magazine first of all) is dedicating to the plant world. It is above all the contribution of digital media (social influencers first and foremost the army of re-bloggers) that has radically transformed a niche phenomenon into a global and pervasive trend.

This rapid escalation has relegated the plant to a design object to be possessed, a feature to embellish your social profile.

And to fuel this trend, research is expanding towards exoticisms that are even more difficult to sustain: tropical plants need extraordinary care and attention to survive in different climates and latitudes. In many cases, the actions to be taken are disproportionate, often of complete unawareness in wanting to give too much care to the plant.

Hug wants to make an ironic point about this impending need to love plants, from the desire to protect them from disease, from the cold, and consequently raises more general questions regarding respect for nature and the ability of the human being to listen to the outside world.