From the 11th of May to the 30th of June 2019, the Geological Collection “Giovanni Capellini Museum” will host the Imaginary Paleobestiaries exhibition, organized by University Museum Network – University of Bologna (SMA) and Dioniso nella Botte cultural association (DNB).
The exposition is managed by Chiara Mascardi, supervised by the Collection’s Scientific Advisor Professor Roberto Barbieri.
These Paleobestiaries are created by the contemporary artists Francesco Cornacchia and Davide Saba, who arrange their catalogues of imaginary beings. They take inspiration from the ancient tradition of bestiaries, but they are influenced also by the unusual exhibition space.
The new creatures are distributed among the shrines and the fossils of the Geological Collection, so their styles are affected by the diversity of the surrounding specimens: the big dinosaur and the giant South American creatures, the ammonites, the cycadales, the mammoths, by Antonio (the Italian Thetyshadros insularis) and much more.
The shape of the artwork is elaborated according to Cornacchia and Saba’s personal styles, which are almost opposite. Cornacchia’s Paleobestiary comes from the graphic and comic world, resulting in impacting definite images that rise in strength and colour, very similar to the medieval bestiaries. On the other hand, Saba’s is the result of wax, acrylic and blowtorch experimentations; an evocative approach, which conveys elusive evolving specimens.
These two different paths represent the possible evolutions that art and arbitrary can give birth to, two sets that develop in parallel with the official versions of the Natural History. The effect is a comparison between worlds, the prehistoric and the artistic ones, in which the spectator can find an occasion of new reflections, linking the past to the present.
OPENING HOURS
11 - 31 May 2019
Monday - Friday: 9am - 1pm
Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays: 10am - 6pm
1 – 30 June 2019
Monday - Friday: 10am - 1pm
Saturdays, Sundays and bank holidays: 10am - 6pm
TICKETS
Free entry
INFO
sma.museocapellini@unibo.it, 051-2094555
dionisonellabotte@gmail.com, 329-0407530