Becoming Friends with Nature: Daniel Steegmann Mangrané’s Reflective Art
Creatrip Team
6 months ago
Spanish artist Daniel Steegmann Mangrané’s solo exhibition “Becoming Friends with Mountains” (Atelier Hermès, 2025–2026) reframes nature not as an object to analyze or possess but as a living, relational process. Using industrial materials and technologies—LED filament bulbs, stone sculptures, holograms, and projections—Mangrané highlights layered, interdependent modes of perception: stones nicknamed like animals invite playful, non‑possessive naming; lights react to outside weather connecting inside and outside; geometric forms reveal order already present in nature; a moon reflected on water becomes a mutable image that challenges fixed ideas of the “real” moon (月, “dal”); and a single leaf is treated as a dense world that changes with viewpoint. The works emphasize reflection, connection, and coexistence rather than domination—urging viewers to accept multiple perspectives (Umwelt) and to “become friends” with nature rather than control it.
