Photogram with engraving on paper

The work brings together photograms of silkworm cocoons, whose visuality evokes X-ray inspection images, commonly associated with the search for something hidden. Emerging as a continuation of an ongoing research on silk, this work developed along the research process rather than as a fully resolved outcome. The piece relates to engravings from the series Vermis Sericus – The Discovery of Silk, published in 1595 in the territory now known as Italy, which depict Emperor Justinian I receiving silkworm eggs smuggled from China by two monks in 552 AD. Although this episode marked the beginning of silk production in Europe, sericulture had been known in China since around 6000 BC. This episode concerns a case of trafficking and industrial espionage rather than a discovery, as the original title of the series might suggest.