20 march – 17 july 2026

On the occasion of its public opening on March 20, the Nicola Del Roscio Foundation presents an exhibition by Danh Vo, one of the most influential voices in contemporary art. The project stems from an idea by Diego Cassina to bring the artist—who for some time has integrated and developed his passion for the plant kingdom within his practice—into dialogue with Nicola Del Roscio, president of an art foundation whose roots are partly grounded in botany, thus initiating a conversation that finds a shared common denominator in plants.

Danh Vo’s practice unfolds through installations, sculptures, and site-specific interventions that intertwine personal and collective history. In recent years Vo’s relationship with plants has evolved due to the twin influences of the flower gardens at his farm Güldenhof north of Berlin, and his relationship with a Vietnamese-German family in the city who run a flower shop below his apartment. These relations have given Vo a perspective on plants from the spontaneously grown flowers of his gardens, to carefully cultivated commercial “cut offs” sold in the store. Rather than merely decorative, Vo sees flowers as living presences carrying stories, history and culture. A flower might suggest love, sympathy or concern, while also demonstrating the cool travel of commodities and the cultivated DNA of colonialism. Plants are incorporated into Vo’s exhibition projects, becoming active organisms capable of establishing an intimate relationship with the public.

Over the years Nicola Del Roscio has cultivated a deep connection with botany, which has become an integral part of his worldview and his relationship with art. In Gaeta, Del Roscio created a botanical park particularly distinguished by a significant collection of palms—plant species rich in symbolic, historical, and geographical references. The seeds for the often rare palms were collected by Del Roscio as he traveled the world engaged in various cultural projects. As with the work of Vo, the plants have a biographical and social register, while expanding to something grand. Nature here is implicated, maybe even corrupted, nevertheless it reaches for the universal. The park is a space of thought, where the slow time of vegetal growth intertwines with a broader reflection on care and memory.

The exhibition at the Nicola Del Roscio Foundation thus emerges from elective affinities between artist and botanist. Nature is a presence that runs through the works, the exhibition space, and the curatorial vision. It offers the public a layered reflection on life, time, and responsibility toward the natural world.