“People will miss the earth,” said Russian astronaut Mikhail Kornienko when he returned to Earth after 340 long days in space, adding, “This is more than nostalgia.” That statement motivated Elisa Strinna to investigate the pain of this lack, into how humans think they can settle in space. An expansion of capitalist and colonial practices into space, says Strinna, who wants to delve into the necessary terraforming and astronomy. In a closed galactic existence, plants will change on their own. “Could such bio-regenerative technology gradually replace the Earth's ecosphere? What kind of future are we looking for for humanity?” For that vision of the future, Strinna wanted to use aesthetic experiments to design a partly astronomical three-dimensional landscape, an 'enchanting aesthetic experience to stimulate people to enter into better relationships with the earth. She works from Silvia Federici's theory of re-enchanting the world, in order to heal our relationship with the earth.

Strinna studied at art academies in Bologna, Strasbourg and Venice, followed by summer schools and residencies in Mexico, Berlin and Maastricht, among others. Her international exhibition and research practice deals with the interdependence between individuals and technologies. "By growing on top of the natural world, the technological world is posing as the future of an ever-expanding species." That is also a starting point for this R&D project.

In it, her attention shifted to film. She immersed herself in wild ecologies that arise from the ruins of monoculture and decided to film this. For example, she made a video that leads past abandoned greenhouses in Liguria in northern Italy. As in a dream, in which the body dissolves, the camera leads past unpredictable and complex interactions of nature in the remnants of industrialization. Due to these extreme conditions, the plants change what is comparable to scenarios for the planned astronomical closed systems. She then set to work in The Galactic Garden as a sculptural installation, which she researched in terms of content, technology and symbolism. “The R&D award allowed me to experiment with raku technique and phosphorescent glazes on porcelain to develop the idea for the final installation.” She wants to submit the film to the IFFR and she is including the work in a number of exhibitions.