Xylogenesis: Science and Art. The Exhibition at the Botanical Garden

15.12.2025

Open to the public until January 6 at the Botanical Garden, Xylogenesis is a scientific, cultural, and artistic project that aims to enhance and communicate Eugenio Trevisan’s 19th-century Xylotheque—a unique collection of wooden books describing forest species.

The exhibition, accompanied by a photographic project that narrates the xylotheque, its restoration, the prototypes, and wood as a material that bears witness to events of the past while representing a resource of excellence for the architecture of the future, was inaugurated in September.

The project is carried out in collaboration with Dolomiti Contemporanee; the Department of Land, Environment, Agriculture and Forestry Systems (TESAF) of the University of Padua; the Lucio Susmel Alpine Environment Study Center in San Vito di Cadore; and the CAM—University Center for Museums of the University of Padua. It involves more than 40 artists and includes three exhibitions between June 2025 and January 2026, held at three different venues: Borca di Cadore, Perarolo di Cadore, and Padua.

Originally consisting of one hundred specimens, the Xylotheque now comprises fifty-six. The first phase of the project involved the restoration of the original specimens by the University of Padua, completed in May 2025. Xylogenesis updates the collection with new artistic books created by artists selected by Dolomiti Contemporanee.