Animabilia by Clelia Cadamuro

Animabilia is an investigation into the role of aesthetics in the relationship with animals. Amazing features such as iridescent scales, multi-colored coats, bright feathers, generate in humans an impulse of spontaneous wonder.

Animabilia is an exploration of the role of aesthetics in the relationship with animals. Astonishing traits such as iridescent scales, colorful coats, and gleaming feathers evoke in humans a spontaneous sense of wonder, which translates into practices of appropriation, imitation, and objectification. Over ten visual narratives explore the ways this sublimation takes shape: through a collection of images featuring naturalistic subjects like taxidermy, dioramas, zoos, and tropical houses, Animabilia outlines the expressions of this fascination, focusing on ancient practices that find new interpretations in contemporary contexts.This attraction to animal forms and their visual manifestations has deep roots in humanity’s history, symbolizing an instinctive and ancestral aesthetic force. Originating from a primordial drive to admire and emulate the beauty of the natural world, these practices bridge ancient rituals and modern expressions. From an aesthetic perspective, a portrait of humanity emerges, subjected to the beauty of the natural world, concentrated on the attempt to grasp its ephemeral beauty, through practices that originated in antiquity and are now translated differently into the contemporary.