JOAN FONTCUBERTA - Alcyonium mugronensis

Paper: Giclée prints on Hahnemühle Museum Fine Art paper
Size: 50 x 40 cm
Edition: 5
Year: 2024
Certificate: Signed and numbered by the artist.

JOAN FONTCUBERTA – Alcyonium mugronensis

In Alcyonium mugronensis, Fontcuberta's artificial coral reaches the pinnacle of biological parody. With its vividly pulsating orange and violet tones, it appears like an organism that lies somewhere between a tropical dream and a scientific scandal. The name, a charming invention, borrows its authority from the soft coral genus Alcyonium, while mugronensis suggests something ornamental, even boastful – a coral that flaunts its own fiction.

Here, the artist perfects his imitation of marine taxonomy. Each rounded polyp seems to be shaped with the precision of an algorithm that loves geometry. The surface of the coral – luminous, fleshy, intensely tactile – is reminiscent of both a cellular structure and a digital representation, a synthesis so convincing that it seems suspicious.

Fontcuberta's humour thrives on this tension. Alcyonium mugronensis is not just a visual illusion – it is a philosophical prank. The coral seems to wink at Darwin himself, suggesting that evolution can occasionally skip the slow track and take a detour through the imagination.

Only when the viewer begins to doubt and critically questions the perfection of the image does Fontcuberta's intention become clear: this is not a documentary, but speculation; not a record of life, but a portrait of belief.