Nuovo Abitare

Nuovo Abitare is a mixed reality experience that reflects on the complexities of migration and the idea of “new dwelling”—both on Earth and in outer space. As humans move across territories, whether driven by necessity or exploration, the act of settlement becomes a profound moment of transformation. Migration is never neutral. It carries with it cultural values, mindsets, physical needs—and yet, it also requires adaptation, openness, and change. In the process, a form of cross-contamination occurs: newcomers leave traces, reshape environments, and in turn are reshaped by unfamiliar conditions. This reciprocal influence—social, biological, and psychological—is inevitable in every form of dwelling.

Within the VR experience, visitors see the physical exhibition space and their own hands, grounding them in the here and now. Slowly, mycelial structures begin to grow across the environment—symbolizing one of nature’s oldest and most intricate systems of distributed intelligence. Mycelium, the underground network of fungi that interconnects trees and ecosystems, becomes a metaphor for interdependence, adaptation, and symbiosis. As the visitor becomes part of this living network, golden geometric forms start to emerge on the gallery walls—referencing the neighboring artwork Sapiens’ Space Shelter Home by Janine Thüngen Reichenbach. These architectural shapes hint at the mental and cultural frameworks humans bring with them into new territories. In the VR experience, the visitors themselves become part of this “contamination” as the mycelium and golden shapes start to grow and emerge around them.

The contamination that takes place is never neutral, it can have positive and negative effects on both the traveler and the new spaces that they arrive at. Space travelers, just as over thousands of years humans wandering across Earth, bring germs, food, experience, ideas, knowledge, tools, materials, or even start to fundamentally change their surroundings by terraforming, or even take over other peoples or new countries. On the other hand, contamination can take the space of symbiosis, knowledge exchange and mutual support. This experience asks us to take responsibility for what and who we are and our potential to bring change.

In this hybrid, augmented space, the visitor becomes a traveler—witnessing the entanglement between body, environment, and digital layer. The experience imagines how knowledge, identity, and environment co-evolve. “New dwelling” becomes more than shelter; it is a space of negotiation, where transformation, resilience, and contamination—both creative and destructive—are part of the process of becoming rooted in the unknown.