To mark World Oceans Day, whose theme for 2026 is “Reimagine,” focusing on the regeneration of the oceans beyond mere protection, Altreforme, in collaboration with the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS) and the WWF Miramare Marine Protected Area, presents an event at the Antico Caffè San Marco that brings art and science into dialogue to encourage reflection on human impacts on marine ecosystems and to imagine new paradigms for our relationship with non-human beings.
“For the Love of Corals” is a cinematic exploration documenting research on coral reproduction in the basement of the Horniman Museum and Gardens in London, where a team of scientists simulated the environmental conditions of the Great Barrier Reef and succeeded, for the first time in the world, in breeding corals in a laboratory. Levy focuses on this daily work of care dedicated to endangered species, with the aim of saving them from imminent extinction and helping the species adapt to human-induced climate change. The technology of the ad hoc laboratory, the complexity of marine ecologies, and the intimacy of care converge in the precision required to support in vitro fertilization of corals. Although keeping corals in captivity is, unfortunately, a fundamental condition of this research, scientists and corals find themselves sharing a space in which to live, work, and build a world, experimenting with a new form of multispecies survival.
Following the screening, Saul Ciriaco of WWF Marine Area, Rocco Auriemma, National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics (OGS), and Lorenzo Lazzari, curator of the exhibition for the 9th edition of Mind The Gap, a project by Altreforme, titled “From Evidence to Imagination” and aimed at exploring, through art, the various perspectives of study, understanding, critique, and imaginative possibilities surrounding the climate crisis.