American artist Alan Sonfist, a pioneer of the Land Art movement known for his 1978 work "Time Landscape" in New York City, has opened a solo exhibition titled "Seeds of Time" at Parco Arte Vivente (PAV) in Turin, Italy. Curated by Marco Scotini, the show features a new installation, "Growth Between the Cracks" (2025), for which Sonfist collaborated with local residents to collect soil samples from overlooked urban spaces across Turin. The exhibition revisits Sonfist's early ecological works and includes a conversation between the artist and curator about the evolution of environmental art.
This exhibition matters because it highlights the growing urgency and mainstream acceptance of environmental art since the 1970s, when Sonfist's nature-focused practice was considered radical. By engaging local communities in the creation of new work, Sonfist demonstrates how art can activate ecological awareness and collective action in the face of the climate crisis. The show also positions Sonfist's decades-old ideas as still relevant and generative, rather than merely historical, underscoring the continued importance of art in addressing pressing environmental issues.