Paola Pacifici |
Paola Pacifici is a researcher and a curator, currently working as scientific coordinator at the Hermann Geiger Cultural Foundation, Italy. Awarded with a PhD in Aesthetics at the University of Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, with a thesis on Anatomy in the Renaissance, she has worked in several international institutions, including University of Calgary, CA, National Institute for Renaissance Studies in Florence, IT, Leeds Museums and Galleries, UK.
She published extensively on modern and contemporary art, with a focus on the iconography of the human body and the relationship between art and science. Her monograph San Sebastiano. Sangue, nudità e peste nella pittura devozionale Toscana 1350-1500 is currently being printed. |
margins on stage. meanings and strategies for displaying human oddities |
This paper focuses on the process of displaying human marvels, considered as a trans-historical and multidisciplinary issue. From late Medieval representations to 20th-century circus imagery up to contemporary art, the monster has been widely represented and displayed, carrying specific meanings related to its context of appearance. According to the etymology of the word (from the Latin verb monstrare: to show) the monster has been indeed considered as a visual concept: a sign which needs to be represented and observed to produce meaning. Nonetheless, the monster “naturally” lives in a world of mystery and shadows, and requires interpretation: as one of the most vivid – charming, frightening and obscene – occurrences of marginality, it has to be re-created to take center stage. Through the analysis of several representations of monsters – which will also show the permanence of a range of types, themes and styles – we will discuss the reasons and the strategies for rethinking the relationship between the center and the margins, not only to shed light on the dynamics of inclusion/exclusion and connotation, but also to bring into focus the role of the image as the very “stage” of this process. |