With “Human Code”, Roberto Sironi presented two years of research on the origins of humankind and its impact on the planet. Set up in the humid underground spaces of SIAM, in the 5VIE museum in Milan, and curated by Annalisa Rosso during the Salone del Mobile, the exhibition was an exploration of ten objects created with a range of differing techniques and materials. A concept work which brings together art and design in the mysterious language of code.

“The idea of this exhibition is not to provide solutions or answers, to say that we will become extinct or not, but rather to provoke reflection, a desire for research and in-depth study, just as the codes do”, explains the curator. “The theme is the human code, seen as a unicum, from the very moment in which the random genetic accident that distinguished between humans and monkeys led to the origin of homo, marking the true beginning of the Anthropocene: that moment in which nature and artifice became inseparable,”

The themes examined range from the domination of fire to the disappearance of the glaciers, to the analysis of language and electronics. The works take the form of bronze corn cobs with onyx grains, red neon numbers which represent the reduction in cubic metres of the Alpine glaciers, a prehistoric Venus printed in 3D with a six-axis robotic arm, and an alabaster tibia which is a science-fiction representation of the beginning and the end. “For the processing of the materials, I contacted artisan workshops that all had art as a common thread”, explained Sironi.

“The alabaster was sculpted by the workshop that sculpts for Ettore Spalletti and Anish Kapoor, while Neonlauro is the company that produces neon lights for Joseph Kosuth. We also have the Fonderia Artistica Battaglia, and the Gipsoteca Fumagalli e Dossi for the works in plaster. The Venus was produced in a workshop in the Politecnico di Milano, all with a view to bring together various disciplines. There is an aspect of science, of technology, and a touch of art and design.” An analysis on the human-nature-technology relationship, and at the same time a reflection on Sironi and his work: a code, as the designer defines it, represented by the most wide-ranging of materials.