Interview: Liudmila Evgeneva
Luca Curci talks with Liudmila Evgeneva during ANIMA MUNDI – RITUALS 2026, at Palazzo Albrizzi-Capello in Venice.

MILLEALI transforms organic memory into a visual structure, where metamorphosis does not end, but continues within the image itself.

Luca Curci – Liudmila, you are the creator of the Milleali technique. What makes it unique?
Liudmila Evgeneva – MILLEALI from the Italian “Mille Ali” (“a thousand wings”), is a contemporary artistic methodology that I developed as a way of reinterpreting the historical nature of mosaic through organic material. Instead of traditional mineral tesserae, stone, glass, or smalti, I work with preserved butterfly wings, constructing images according to the structural principles of mosaic. The name of the technique reflects its fundamental idea: the image emerges from numerous fragile fragments united into a single visual system. Like an ancient mosaic, Milleali is built through the assembly of individual elements; however, instead of mineral matter, it employs organic material that carries within it the memory of biological life. All materials are collected exclusively through ethical methods after the completion of the butterfly’s natural life cycle. Wings are never taken from living insects and are not the result of artificial intervention in their existence. They are collected at the Butterfly House of the Botanical Garden of Rome after the butterflies have completed their life cycle. For me, it is essential that the material undergoes its natural transformation before becoming part of the artistic process.

One of the key elements of Milleali is my self-developed preservation method for butterfly wings, designed to ensure their longevity and structural stability. This process makes it possible to work with a material that inherently belongs to the realm of the ephemeral and biologically vulnerable. I have always been interested in one question: can a material associated with disappearance and fragility create an image capable of possessing an inner monumentality? Historically, mosaic has been an art of permanence. Its purpose was to preserve images across time. Stone, glass, and minerals were chosen precisely for their resistance to deterioration, fixing visual memory within durable matter. Milleali reinterprets this historical paradigm. I create visually monumental structures from elements that are almost ephemeral by nature. The works exist in a constant tension between stability and dissolution, preservation and vulnerability, material fragility and visual permanence.

LC – What principles form the foundation of the technique?
LE – Milleali is built upon three core principles. The first principle is organic mosaic. Each butterfly wing functions as an organic tessera, an image fragment analogous to a component of traditional stone mosaic. Unlike mineral material, however, it retains the memory of biological existence. It possesses its own structure, its own history, and remains a carrier of natural time. The second principle is the paradox of monumentality. I create large-scale and visually stable compositions from extremely fragile elements. A composition may appear almost architectural in its solidity, yet its material foundation consists of objects that are nearly ephemeral in nature. This creates an internal tension between the enduring image and the vulnerability of its material. The third principle is optical variability. Butterfly wings possess a unique structural coloration. Their color arises not only from pigment but also from microscopic surface structures that interact with light. As a result, the image never remains completely static. Light reflects differently. Color shifts. The surface acquires an iridescent glow. The image transforms with the viewer’s movement and changing illumination. The surface begins to almost “breathe.” In this way, another dimension emerges within the work: time itself becomes part of the image.

LC – Can your practice be described as a philosophical investigation?
LE – Absolutely. For me, each butterfly wing functions not merely as artistic material, but as a trace of completed biological existence. Separated from the organism only after the natural completion of its life cycle, it becomes a witness to time and transformation. I have long been interested in how an image can preserve not only form, but memory itself. Historically, mosaics and icons functioned as structures of preservation. Their purpose was to resist disappearance and maintain the continuity of the image through time. Milleali continues this conversation differently. Instead of durable mineral matter, I use a material whose very nature reminds us of the fragility of existence. The image becomes a paradoxical place of preservation, a structure designed to hold fragments that inherently belong to disappearance. The butterfly is important here not merely as a symbol of metamorphosis, but as its material embodiment. The insect undergoes its own transformation: from caterpillar to chrysalis and finally to butterfly. When wings become part of a new composition, the process of metamorphosis symbolically continues. A fragment of a transformed organism becomes the fundamental building block of another transformation, the emergence of pictorial form. Through these operations, Milleali establishes a dialogue between three temporal dimensions: the historical tradition of mosaic, biological time embedded within organic material, and the contemporary perception of the image as a fragile and constantly changing structure. This is why I consider Milleali not merely an artistic technique, but a practice situated at the intersection of art, memory, time, transformation, and ancient observations of nature.