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        Defying the definition of 'border' has always been a central idea in the work of Italian artist Davide Grazioli. And over the last two years, his works have become more and more openly related to the environment that is again a concept that escapes boundaries.

        In his latest exhibition in India, the artist presents a new site-specific installation entitled 'Before we go' on display at Art World in Chennai.

        Grazioli has been often working on the 'sacred' as well as on 'nature' and gradually the two seem to have collided and fused into one single theme-The identification of the planet itself with something sacred.

        In many different ways and through the most diverse media (from bronze to embroidery) Grazioli's works in recent years have glanced at harmonious and delicate subjects that have been threatened or attacked.

        But if the last series of works on the endangered species (portrayed in an unusual media such as incense) was referring to the animal world, in his latest installation, the artist's approach has become more direct.

        He is clearly dealing with today's environmental crisis as the real threat to mankind.

        Dozens of incense skulls are lying on a carpet of white lotus flowers and in some of these skulls some silver teeth are still visible.

        Grazioli's sculptures are burnable therefore carrying in themselves the transiency of being here, but potentially gone in smoke soon. Again on a border, the one with two dimensions, here and elsewhere.

        Significant for the artist in this work is the presence of two new ingredients - gold and myrrh, which stress the concept of gift. In fact the myrrh was used for preservation of dead bodies symbolising immortality and rebirth.

        Even though the environmental future is not known, one thing is certain: After the burning of one of Grazioli's sculptures, the skull would go in smoke but the silver teeth would remain here in the ashes. 'Working with such a highly symbolic material as natural incense is a very intense experience itself, it allowed me to search directly in the source of belief,' Grazioli said jokingly. Grazioli's installation at Art World is on till 25 July.