In its 2025 edition, Between the fence It has landed in 140 locations in more than 70 cities on five continents, and in the Italian leg, the different visual arts openings are chapters of the same thing. An organizational project called “Recall,” worked on by Benedetta Cassini. in Fabrica del Vapore Milano, It’s called a proposal “Transform into an animal” It reflects on the relationship between humans and animals, and brings together a selection of artists who seek to abandon the anthropocentric perspective.
Artists are present in their work The process of mutation and hybridization with other animal species. The models are Marta Roberti (Italy), Lia Chaia (Brazil), Elena Mazzi (Italy), Bruna Esposito (Italy), Gaia De Mini (Italy), Helena Hladilova (Czech/Italy), Valentina Furian (Italy), Bekhbaatar Enkhtur (MNG/ITA), Jonathas de Andrade (Brazil), Calixto Ramírez (Mexico), Michela De Mattei (Italy), Allura. Calzadilla (USA/Cub) and Carla Groenauer (Argentina).
“In this case I was interested in exploring the idea of the American Indian perspective of Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, one of the two thinkers who inspired me, in this idea that We were all men and some of us became animalsThat is, every living being believes that it is a human being, so if we see animals as animals, then the jaguar sees us as animals.
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“In this case, they are all artists working on the relationship with animals, and in some cases there is a reflection of the perspective of putting themselves in the place of the animal, looking at the world as if you were an animal and presenting it, trying to break out of our anthropocentric and rationalistic view of humanity, and in other cases there is rather The problem of the relationship between humans and animals “And our desire to domesticate the animal and that power relationship,” Cassini said.
Look at yourself through the eyes of a dead fish
Upon entering the Fabbrica del Vapore exhibition room, the viewer is confronted with a series of photographs Dead fish eyes Made by Italian artist Bruna Espositoworked in a way similar to human pupils or at least the difference is not noticeable.
“She sees incredible beauty in the eyes of these dead fish and takes pictures of them and obviously zooms in on them a lot. And indeed the fish are dead, but unlike us, the fish don’t have eyelids. So Even after death they watch you“, says Benedetta Cassini during a press tour. “I was interested in opening this exhibition with this work because Reverse your view. “We usually look at fish in aquariums or in the sea, and in this case we are the ones being looked at.”
Jaya from Minifor its part, presents two ideal areas that together form a disturbing statement: “I don’t know if the night is sky or sea.” These balls are made of stones from the Liguria region of northern Italy, and the phrase is part of an ode to Genoa Eduardo Firpo.
Firpo writes poetry about him Airone, a distinctive bird of the Ligurian maritime region Who have difficulty recognizing the horizon: at night they do not recognize the water and it is difficult for them to find their food because the sky is reflected in the sea.
The poetry says: “On winter nights, a heron struggles to see the fish. The black sky is reflected in the sea, and the horizon fades. Sailors throw pieces of dry bread near the shore, luring the fish to the surface to feed. The heron waits on a nearby boat, ready to attack, thinking: ‘At night, I don’t know whether it’s the sky or the sea.'”
Elena Mazy Presents “Becoming With and Not Becoming With #8, #14, #16, #18”, photographs and sculptures They start with the whale’s skeletons that she incorporates into her body, Causing a kind of transformation. This game also shows bone structure and the possibility of playing with conformation carla Groenor, Which presents with its drawing a being, a human being in principle, but who Vertebrae mutate.
Related to them is work Calixto Ramirezan image of a hand covered in snakeskin, which also indicates a possible mutation. Leah Chaya He presents a series of self-portraits with fake animals and suggests a play of tenderness with inanimate objects. Larta Roberti Drawing two sisters and a snake in the process of merging, Helena Hladilova Creates a sculpture shaped like a little turtle, a little hand, a little spider, climbing the wall.
Statues Bakhbaatar chose They are made from copper and beeswax, and are processed into organic and animal-based forms. Wolves, birds, dragons and horses emerge from a fantasy world fed on the myths and legends of Mongolia, their homeland. He explores his research Transformation as a basic condition for existence: Every object or object, over time, changes its meaning and function, but its essence remains.
Valentina Furian It creates a participatory experience The viewer can be the centaur of his own work. His proposal is a suspended screen on which images of a white horse are projected, and since it is suspended in the air, whoever stands behind the film forms a centaur, i.e. the projection of the horse is the upper body and the human legs are shaped like the horse’s legs.
Michel de Mattei Installing a series of images made in the form of “scratches” where some parts of the images appear and others do not. They document Alleged sightings of the thylacine (also known as thylacine jaguars), It was declared extinct in 1936 due to hunting and the destruction of its habitat in Tasmania, which was colonized by the British, but it is still present in the collective imagination. Despite the lack of scientific evidence, reports and sightings of the animal continue: entire communities, both online and in person, have come together to confirm the existence of thylacines today.
The artist thus embodies a fleeting presence, exploring human mechanisms of desire and projection, as well as… Denying the concept of extinction
Finally, there are two films, one of them Jonathas de Andrade, “Hey Pixie”which documents rituals inspired by the practices of fishermen in a town on the northeastern coast of Brazil. Filmed in 16mm, with an aesthetic reminiscent of classic ethnographic documentaries, it shows fishermen catching fish, then holding them to their chests, caressing their bodies in… A sensory connection that lasts until the animal’s last breath.
Allura and Calzadilla with their “Great Silence”an imaginative display that begins with the Arecibo Radio Telescope, one of the largest telescopes in the world at the time of filming, located at the Arecibo Observatory in Esperanza, Puerto Rico. This element of technology, currently out of service, shared the landscape with what is now the last remaining group of parrot species in danger of extinction: White Amazon parrot.
For this project, Allora & Calzadilla collaborated with science fiction writer Ted Chiang, who wrote the text that accompanies the images as fantasy-style translations. The narrative is interwoven with reflections on the unbridgeable distances between living and nonliving beings, humans, animals, technology, and the universe. The parrot himself takes the floor and talks about humanity’s search for extraterrestrial life, using the concept of vocal learning — an ability shared by parrots, humans, and some other species — and asking questions of the humans. Why are they so desperate for dialogue with beings from other planets and do not try to do so with other terrestrial organisms?
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