MUTANTES
treger saint silvestre collection
The Mutantes exhibition brings together imaginary animals, plants, and organic beings from the Treger Saint Silvestre collection. Winged frogs, dragons, mermaids, dancing creatures, polycephalic and hybrid beings, camouflaged animals, and botanical metamorphoses are just some of the species from another world that now inhabit the Oliva Art Center. In this psychedelic and fictional “natural world,” filled with beings straight out of fables, myths, and magical visions, we are presented with an alternative ecology that makes us reflect on our own condition as living beings.
In Why Look at Animals, John Berger reflects on the degradation of our relationship with nature. He notably discusses the reduction of animals—once central and inseparable from human existence—to the category of spectacle or consumer product, reminding us that long ago, “animals entered our imagination as messengers and promises.” This is the starting point for Mutantes, which naturally extends to botany and its imaginary.
