Italian artist Enrico Minguzzi transformed Altro Mondo Creative Space into a “speculative laboratory” that poetically maps the Philippines with his exhibit “Archipelago,” running until Nov. 22.

At the heart of the exhibit lies the title piece, Archipelago, a floor installation composed of 107 Petri dishes meticulously arranged to trace the outline of the Philippine island. Enrico explained that his initial draw to this theme was simply a surrender to his “own inclinations,” coupled with a long-held fascination with landscapes seen from above.

“They offer surprising visions, abstract paintings in themselves, perfectly balanced and providing an alternative way of seeing this,” Enrico states.

The work is a profound metaphor for unity forged from variety. Each Petri dish, filled with pigments suspended in epoxy resin, represents a singular identity, an “island.” Yet, they are fundamentally connected.

“The metaphor I’ve tried to convey through this installation is that unity made up of different characteristics,” he explained. “There are no sharp divisions, and the whole landscape, the installation, becomes a multicolored gradient.”

The artist’s choice of a Petri dish —a scientific instrument used to culture life —is a deliberate conceptual pivot. Here, it abandons its scientific function to become a vessel for artistic genesis.

“I believe Petri dishes lend themselves perfectly to this work, as their very function is to serve as a medium for the growth of life forms,” Enrico notes.

He conceived of the resin within the dishes as the “culture fluid from which life emerges,” linking the installation directly to the large-scale paintings surrounding it, which also utilize epoxy resin on their canvas supports.

The installation functions as a beautiful, crystallized vision: “the first phase that preceded the actual genesis of the works.” The artist also describes it as a luminous tribute to the host country.

“When I’m here in the Philippines, I see light, and I’ve tried to convey that… a primordial state made of bright, vivid, and luminous colors, the origin upon which the nation itself took form.”

While the imaginary is filled with semi-natural forms and scientific grammar, Enrico emphasized that his deepest message is a deeply human and emotional one, intended to stand in contrast to modern “machine logic.”

“Now more than ever, I believe painting is a tool capable of humanizing us, of reminding us that to be human - unlike machines - means, above all, to have the ability to feel and to live through our emotions.”

He hopes viewers will take the time to truly listen and engage in a dialogue with the images, which are poured from his “inner self.”

“This body of work, for me, is one in which I’ve poured much of my inner self - my emotions, my feelings, both joyful and otherwise,” he shared. “Painting is not made of words, but it is a language, a code, that each of us, if willing to listen, can read and decipher.”

When asked about his Italian heritage, Enrico acknowledged that the “construction of the images is deeply connected to the history and tradition of European representation.” He views this as the “language” through which his way of speaking has formed, but ultimately aims for his art to resonate with the university, transcending its cultural origins.

For first-time visitors seeking a starting point, Enrico suggests viewing the exhibit not as a sequence of individual pieces, but as a holistic experience.

“I believe this is one of the most visually cohesive exhibits I’ve ever created. I envisioned the exhibit as a chorus of voices capable of resonating in unison.”

While a piece like the generously sized “Fior torminto” is rich in detail and elements, the artist stresses that it “needs all the other voices that accompany it in order to resonate at its best,” encouraging viewers to experience the complete, interconnected landscape of the “Archipelago.”