How far can humanity drift from its natural origins? Spanish artist Lidó Rico poses this question in his solo exhibition De Rerum Naturae (On the Nature of Things) at Luisa Catucci Gallery, Berlin, drawing inspiration from Lucretius’s ancient philosophical poem. Rico insists on understanding the universe through its physical nature and places the intrinsic relationship between human beings and the natural order under a magnifying glass.
Rico’s practice pushes the limits of traditional technique: he pours liquid resins into silicone moulds to create his sculptures; some moulds are taken directly from his own body, others from actual human brains donated by the University of Murcia. These materials exist in an interstitial space that dissolves the boundaries between human and non-human, natural and artificial.
The Curse of the Performance Society
The exhibition offers a post-humanist revision of Western humanism. Rico’s sculptures function as visceral metaphors for the violence inflicted by a society obsessed with constant productivity, technological dependency and profound exhaustion. Fragile heads, brains embedded with technological implants and distorted faces symbolise a humanity that has become the victim of artificial control systems threatening to sever us from our biological essence.
The artist highlights how mental-health issues (ADHD, burnout, neurodegenerative diseases) emerge as symptoms of a soul crushed beneath hyper-productive society. In the shift Foucault described from the disciplinary institution (prisons, hospitals) to the “performance society,” the modern individual has become both exploiter and exploited. Rico’s work captures this internalised oppression.
Cosmic Transformation and Forgotten Roots
Lucretius’s influence reminds us that the universe is a perpetual process of transformation (alchemy). Rico’s sculptures serve as a memento mori for a species that, in its arrogance, has forgotten its material roots. By focusing on bodily and psychological trauma, the artist forces us to confront our own fragility and the ecological and existential consequences of our separation from nature.
De Rerum Naturae demands that we move beyond the illusions of mastery and control, accept transformation as the fundamental condition of existence, and rethink the ideologies that have sustained modern humanism.
Artist: Lidó Rico
Exhibition: De Rerum Naturae
Venue: Luisa Catucci Gallery, Brunnenstrasse 170, Berlin
Dates: On view until 20 December 2025
Note: The artist uses moulds taken from his own body and from donated human brains in the University of Murcia.
