The thesis that human beings belong to the landscape they perceive is both valid and contradictory since "landscape" itself is a cultural construct. Arianna Pace's artistic research reflects the perceptual process of belonging to a landscape, which occurs in parallel with shifting one’s gaze toward the less immediately evident aspects of the environment.
Like a palimpsest, human history—composed of traditions and traces—layers itself upon the natural world. As a geologist would, the artist studies the composition of the Earth's surface, fascinated by its transformative processes, the inscription of time, and the atmospheric forces readable in its layers. She examines its morphology and the interaction between endogenous processes (magmatism, volcanism) and exogenous ones (erosion, transport, sedimentation) that have shaped and continue to shape the landscape, while also investigating the cultural lens embedded in our perception of the environment.
The artist’s observation of the Earth's temporal layers parallels an archaeological approach, revealing traces of past life that hold invaluable significance. Arianna Pace studies, reinterprets, documents, and archives them, seeking to transform the preservation of material memory and scientific study into a form of survival—one she shares with those who engage with her work.