E.T. Telefono Terra Giorgio Celiberti Jr. - Roberta Sorbo The exhibition tells of a nostalgia that recalls the one felt by E.T., Spielberg's extraterrestrial, who in the famous film, due to a series of vicissitudes, was mistakenly left behind by his peers on our planet. Sitting on the ground, he points his finger toward the space beyond our sky: "home - home," he says sadly, and tries to make "phone" contact. Starting from this premise linked to popular culture, we imagined flipping the perspective, admitting that we are the alienated ones who—from very close galaxies that nevertheless pull us far away, such as technology, consumerism, and the will to power—cannot manage to return to the Earth, to reconnect with it and, above all, to protect it. It is a true nostalgia for our home, a gut response to the ongoing ecological emergency, expressed through the two imaginaries, one terrestrial and the other cosmic, of Giorgio Celiberti Jr. and Roberta Sorbo. The insects swarming under the brush of Giorgio Celiberti Jr. make up those roughly one billion tons of terrestrial biomass, which more than doubles the total biomass of humanity (estimated at around four hundred million tons). With this incredible mass, insects rank as "little creatures that run the world," to quote the title of the famous biologist Edward O. Wilson, revealing themselves to be the largest and most indispensable group on our planet. The pictorial concentration is extremely dense and layered, making these tiny insects look remarkably imposing and heavy, as if to suggest their continuous swarming underneath, within the textures of the canvas. The lighter and more transparent outline lines, which pile on top of each other, make the subjects flicker and buzz, literally come alive, suspended between hyperrealism and vibration. However, in recent years, air pollution, deforestation, urbanization, and the use of pesticides have caused a drastic decline in ladybugs, butterflies, moths, bees, and countless other species. Researchers estimate that total biomass is falling by 2.5% annually and have gone so far as to call the phenomenon an "ecological Armageddon" for insects. It is implied that (it is only a matter of time) it will be one for us as well. Celiberti Jr.’s insects confront the vast empty spaces of the canvas and occupy only a marginal part of it; they are isolated, decontextualized, disoriented, sometimes martyred, raised to the status of a symbol. The cosmic imaginary of Roberta Sorbo explores the relationships between the microcosm and the macrocosm. Her space views, executed in pencil on paper, find a theoretical and scientific level within the two-dimensional surface that leads us into the world of atoms and energy. The drawings bounce off the gallery walls and confront space debris or geological fragments, reproduced by Sorbo using waxes, plaster, and pigments, with an appearance so realistic that it deceives the observer. She plays at being the Demiurge: she looks at the subatomic sphere, using the pencil with a light touch, and, moved by generosity, shapes the ideally chaotic and pre-existing matter, producing a world. It is the conscious Universe looking at the Earth, perhaps with compassion or perhaps not, certainly with the proper detachment, and in the meantime juggling space and form: some debris levitates above the papers spread out on the ground, while others interact with each other, creating phases of equilibrium and instability. Sorbo's works, so deeply rooted in the planetary structure, also remind us of hubristic human madness and the rush to conquer other interstellar habitats. It is necessary to re-establish contact between the alien and his home. E.T.: Phone. Elliott: Phone? He said phone! He said phone! Gertie: Didn't you wash your ears this morning? He said phone. E.T.: Home… Elliott: You're right. E.T.: E.T... Home... Phone. Gertie: E.T. phone home!