Linda Fregni Nagler, "Ophrys", 2015

Linda Fregni Nagler, “Ophrys”, drawing of the project, 2015


Linda Fregni Nagler, Ophrys

Ophrys a greenhouse decorated, on the upper perimeter, with photographic glass plates that will reproduce pictures of botanical species nowadays definitely extinct, taken from the precious and little known Erbario Sordelli (1872­97) [The  Sordelli Herbal], preserved in the collection of historical herbals of the University of Milan.
The greenhouse is dedicated to the study of the botanical native species under threat of extinction, in partnership with the Dipartimento di Bioscienze of the Universita? degli Studi di Milano and with the Orto Botanico of Citta? Studi. An another consequent, equally important purpose of the project is the repopulation of these threatened species inside of the greenhouse. The work is connected to the project by Gustafson Porter’s studio, infact the park is based on the idea of offering a sampling of the botanical species from the Padan Plain and the Prealps.
On the other hands the insert of stained glasses reproducing the drawings from the herbal recuperates the ancient practice of using glass negatives as building materials. Before the adoption of cellulose, glass was employed as a support for photographic negatives, and there is a variety of evidence of the conversion of photographic plates into material used to build greenhouses.

Linda Fregni Nagler was born in 1976 in Stockholm, she lives and works in Milan. Her research is based on photography issue, she acts as a researcher, studious and collector of the subject.  Linda Fregni Nagler usually starts from anonymous and found pictures to create her artwork, she uses to collect, re-stage, re-photographing them or repropose them as ready-made. In this way she questions on authorship, reproduction, manipulation and on the medium itself. The history of photography, its tecniques and its socio-anthropological value are part of the artist research.