Morphogenesis ← Liquid Fragmentation → Architecture of the Scar
MORPHOGENESIS
ARTISTIC INQUIRY
Where does form begin?
1998–2013 · PAINTING · GLASS · PRINTMAKING
FORM BEFORE LANGUAGE
Developed by Daniel Romero Nieto | DARONI, MORPHOGENESIS began through repeated material experimentation. Making, observing and returning to the work gradually changed the conditions in which form appeared.
“In Trieste I was moving between scientific work across scales, molten glass and printmaking. Only later did I recognise the continuity: a change of scale altered what I could perceive, and a change of material altered the question itself.”
— Daniel Romero Nieto | DARONI
Current reflection, 2026
SELECTED WORKS
The project developed through painting, glass and printmaking. Moving from one material to another changed the process and changed what could emerge from it.
WHAT REMAINS UNRESOLVED
Each work carried forward what the previous one had left unresolved.
MATERIAL CONDITION
In Murano, glass changed through heat, gravity, viscosity and copper. The process could be guided, but not fully predicted.
TRANSLATION
In Trieste, that unfinished question entered another process. Honey and incision replaced molten glass, and what had been experienced in volume was worked again on a surface.
RETURN
A finished work can still leave something open. Under different conditions, that remainder may become the beginning of another form.
Form begins in what a previous form leaves unresolved.
ARCHIVE
2015 — PUBLICATION AND EXHIBITION
The works were brought together through exhibition and publication, allowing relationships between painting, glass and printmaking to be seen across the project as a whole.
Museo d'Arte Moderna Ugo Carà · Muggia, Italy · 2015. Curated by Maria Campitell.
2018 — ANALOGÍAS
A comparative return to the archive brought together images, diagrams and scientific references. The comparison tested relationships between scale, observation and form. Earlier works remained autonomous while scientific references operated as comparative material.
Analogías, comparative diagram, 2018.
2025–2026 — RETURN
The archive was opened again. Earlier works, photographs, texts and diagrams were reconsidered alongside questions that had emerged much later.
“The works stayed the same, but returning to them years later made different questions visible.”
MORFOGÉNESIS
El origen de la forma como superestructura.
Spanish edition, 2025.
CRITICAL RETURNS
These readings approach MORPHOGENESIS from different moments and critical positions.
María Campitelli
Curator, Gruppo 78 Trieste
Historical reception
“Il motore di base che spinge alla ricerca è la ‘curiosità creativa’.”
Editorial translation:
“The driving force behind the research is ‘creative curiosity’.”
Edgar Vite Tiscareño
Philosopher, UNAM
Historical reception
“Una poesía del pensamiento científico.”
Editorial translation:
“A poetics of scientific thought.”
Jilli Mōniz
Curator & Critic
Critical rereading · 2025
Wynter, Fanon and Other Ways of Knowing.
Mōniz reopens MORPHOGENESIS through Sylvia Wynter and Frantz Fanon, questioning who is authorised to define knowledge, technology and the human, and bringing matter, hand, ritual and instrument into the discussion as ways of knowing.
“I believe that Daniel Romero Nieto’s morphogenesis is the new science that Wynter demands.”
—Jilli Mōniz
2025
EXPLORE FURTHER
The project begins with form. The inquiry continues through relation.