Every Living Being is a Chimera *

The exhibition Mutants brings together animals, plants and imaginary organic beings from the Treger Saint Silvestre collection. Frogs with wings, dragons, mermaids, dancing, polycephalic and hybrid creatures, camouflage animals and botanical metamorphoses are all species from another world that now inhabit the Centro de Arte Oliva. In this psychedelic and fictionalised “natural world”, featuring beings taken directly from fables, myths and magical visions, we are presented with an alternative ecology that makes us think about our own condition as living creatures.

In his book, Why Look at Animals, John Berger discussed the degradation of our relationship with nature. In particular, he talked about the reduction of animals – once central and non-separate in human existence – to the category of spectacle or consumer products, and reminded us how, many years ago, “animals first entered the imagination as messengers and promises”. This was the starting point for Mutants, which naturally extended to imaginary botany.

The curatorial project was developed in collaboration with the CAO’s Mediation and Participation team. During the Mutants exhibition, the project ‘The Discordant Seeds of Disconnected Things’ will be installed in the exhibition space, functioning as a laboratory that encompasses a diverse programme of public activities.

The exhibition’s design was developed with R2 design studio.

The Mutants have been created by A. Kanan, A. Aramugam, Alain Lacoste, Alexandro García, Alireza Maleki, Albino Braz, Ana Carrondo, Anna Zemánková, António Saint Silvestre, Davood Koochaki, Carlo Franco Stella, Carlo Zinelli, C.V.M. (Carlos Victor Martins), Didier Estival, Eduardo F.M., Franck Lundangi, Franz Kernbeis, Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern, Gerald Creative DePrie, Guo Fengyi, Hans Verschoor, Hiroya Oji, Jaime Fernandes, Jacqueline B., Jesuys Crystiano, Johann Garber, Johann Gittenberger, John Henry Toney, John Ricardo Cunningham, José Manuel Egea, Karl Hans Janke, Kazumi Kamae, Madge Gill, Manuel Bonifácio, Marcello Cammi, Marco Raugei, Mohamed Babahoum, Mose T (Mose Tolliver), Ognjen Jeremic, Patrick Chapelière, Philippe Dereux, Raphaël Lonné, Robert Combas, Scottie Wilson, Stanislav Holas, Vasilij Romanenkov and some anonymous.

*Emanuele Coccia, Metamorphoses, 2021.