Against prejudices. An exhibition revisits the monstrous

There are those who, speaking of monsters, will think of fear, some of horror, some of the inexplicable fascination for the unknown. Some will think of war, others of politics and society, or the concept of deformity, of disturbed interiority or diversity compared to the ordinary. For the exhibition project “Monstra. A prodigious exhibition” , Alchemica Aps , the leading association promoting the exhibition, and the curator Camilla Nacci Zanetti , have thought first of all of the works of a large group of artists who work on the theme of the monstrous and the fantastic. Friday 11 July at 7 pm, Carme in via delle Battaglie, in Brescia , hosts this exhibition, born from cultural and anthropological research around the concept of monster and its original etymology, with the intent of reflecting on diversity and its representations, between fears, desires and transformations. In collaboration with Alchemica Aps, in the hall of the former church of Saints Philip and James, now deconsecrated, a selection of contemporary works of art will be presented, offering a look at the theme of monstrosity as a critical and poetic tool.

The artists were given the task of reconnecting the thematic references belonging to the monstrous, breaking down the barriers of prejudice and guiding visitors through a path characterized by hybrid figures, small apocalyptic worlds and references to the inner monster that we try to hide behind our daily masks. The most surprising aspect of the exhibition is the quantity of references to worlds apparently distant from each other, but united by the attraction for what, ultimately, we do not know, and that pertains to the still unexplored realm of fantasy . Through the languages ​​of visual art, from painting to sculpture, to video, to installation, to performance, the exhibition offers a rereading of the imagery linked to the monster, or rather to the “monstra” that have arrived in our present.

Federica Pacella