At PAV, an exhibition tackles colonial memory by tracing a theory of prey

PAV Parco Arte Vivente in Turin presents from March 19 to May 29, 2022 the group exhibition La Natura e la Preda, curated by Marco Scotini, which aims to address the theme of colonial memory through the works of Irene Coppola, Edoardo Manzoni, Daniele Marzorati and Alessandra Messali.

Being prey is obviously in relation to other subjects. It is possible to say that something becomes prey as a result of a process of distinction, hierarchization or exclusion from shared orders. To trace a theory of prey it is necessary to think both about the politics of representation and the ways in which power constructs social identities through repression. Prey is always something that is acquired through violence and capture. Constructing a theory of prey can be an important tool in addressing the dramatic topicality of colonial memory.The four invited emerging artists are not naturalists, but archaeologists of a social history of nature, investigating by working on representations of theexotic, hunting, and colonial experimentation with plants.

Edoardo Manzoni ’s hunting scenes, traps, and bird calls reflect on the aestheticization of the violence of images produced in Africa during the colonial period. The depiction of the tamed and killed beast, exaggerated in order to make the hunt a heroic feat, is functional to big game hunting as an exoticizing tool, a metaphor for the subjugation of populations. Daniele Marzorati’s project, in turn, traces some of the physical traces of the colonial removed in Italian territory, a photographic research that activates connections between the normative power of official history and seemingly neutral objects, looking at the link between fascism, colonialism and racism by making use of the concept of race.

Emilio Salgari and the tiger- A Story Written in Far Away Italy, Set in Guwahati 1870, by Alessandra Messali, is the result of research conducted by the artist between 2013 and 2016 in the Indian state of Assam as part of the Guwahati Research Program (Microclimate). The popular writer never traveled outside of Italy, despite having written more than two hundred adventure stories set in exotic countries. The project is an experiment in which the differences between text and context found in Salgari’s books are used as a tool to reflect on the logics of cultural representation and in particular what it means to be represented.

Finally,Irene Coppola presents Habitat 08°N, created by working closely with the indigenous community of Guna Yala (Panama), in collaboration with architect Vito Priolo: starting from the local material culture, a memory code is constructed that can tell the history of the territory, date settlements, and map migrations and displacements.

The exhibition is realized with the support of Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione CRT, the Piedmont Region and the City of Turin.

At PAV, an exhibition tackles colonial memory by tracing a theory of prey

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