Before the lotus seed becomes a flower,
it must pass through the mud.
That mud is the world.

This edition of 100 was created on the occasion of the exhibition “Potenziale Immanifesto”, which took place in 2015 at Galleria Ciocca in Milan. [Learn more]

The lotus seed does not sprout in soil.
It is a hard core covered by a thick, seemingly impenetrable shell.
Simply being cast into water is not enough for it to open: it needs to be scarred.
This is why it takes root more easily in swampy water and mud—because the debris carried by the murky water strikes it again and again, piercing it with wound-like impacts.
The seed does not cry, does not complain. It does not die. It doesn’t lose courage or forget its goal.
It can remain in the mud without opening for ten weeks, keeping its vitality intact.
According to some legends, lotus seeds have remained dormant for thousands of years before blooming.
If the seed lands in clean water, it will need to be tossed again and again against rocks and stones, dragged by the current, before it inflicts on itself the wound that will allow it to germinate.
Once opened, the small seed draws all its nourishment from the water.
Even if the water is murky, it grows just as lush: filth cannot harm it, nothing diverts the lotus from its radiant nature.
It transforms every remnant into nourishment, becoming stronger and stronger, turning what is vile to others into a chance for true growth. [source: La storia del fior di loto]