1922-2022. Made of star stuff  is the title of the project that Street Levels Gallery commissioned to AEC Interesni Kazki, a Ukrainian artist known internationally for his surrealist paintings, inspired by science, cosmology, past times. The artist decided to combine the Greek-Egyptian mythological image of Zeus Ammon, considered the god of the sky, with that of Margherita Hack, the Italian astronomer who, by chance, was born in via delle Cento Stelle, in Florence. From ancient myths to modern science, AEC is one of the few international muralists able to collect the legacy of complex themes that intertwine nature, the human being and the supernatural. The result of his artistic research is an extremely recognizable evocative alphabet, capable of combining the figurative and the allegorical without falling into simple didactic reproduction. His narrative bases its roots in the past, from the history of the cosmos to that of human civilization, to continually renew itself thanks to his imaginative vision and singular surrealist stylization.

“We are the way the universe knows itself. Part of our existence knows that’s where we come from. We want to go back, and we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We are made of stars ”.
– C. E. Sagan

The Ukrainian artist considers his work as “an opportunity to understand the mystical reasons of the Universe” and precisely this ambition unites him to Hack: he with the brush, she with the optical instruments, both tireless seekers of the unknown. title chosen by AEC for the Made of star stuff project took up a quote from a famous American-born astrophysicist, Carl Edward Sagan, who in a few words succeeded in capturing the meaning conveyed by the artwork itself.

ALTRO