Animal Question
From 5 to 22 June 2025, the Mattatoio in Rome presents the exhibition Ottavio Celestino. ANIMAL QUESTION, curated by Michela Becchis and Nicoletta Provenzano, promoted by the Department of Culture of Roma Capitale and by the Azienda Speciale Palaexpo. The exhibition, held at the Galleria delle Vasche in La Pelanda with free admission, is organized by the Azienda Speciale Palaexpo in collaboration with the Celestino Archive.
Reviewed by Fabian
05. June 2025
“There is no such thing as ‘the Animal’ in the general singular.
Separated from man by a single indivisible limit.
We must realize that there are 'living beings' whose plurality cannot be reduced to the sole figure of animality simply opposed to humanity.”
— Jacques Derrida
Separated from man by a single indivisible limit.
We must realize that there are 'living beings' whose plurality cannot be reduced to the sole figure of animality simply opposed to humanity.”
— Jacques Derrida
The exhibition unfolds as a questioning threshold on the way humans perceive animality — not as an external object, but as a presence that inhabits and challenges us. There is no answer, only a slow rummaging through the consciousness of a civilization that has learned to dominate without understanding.
Since the 1980s, the artist’s work has moved along the porous border between the human and the natural, seeking traces of the other in what we believe to be ours. In this new stage of his journey, the photographic gaze becomes a tool for listening: traversed by memory, contaminated by myth, inhabited by the present.
The animals — not figures, but forces — appear as silent apparitions: resistant, solemn, wounded, and inviolable. They do not tell stories, but pose questions.
The images await our gaze. Like profane relics, they disrupt indifference and force the viewer into confrontation with what has been repressed. In this space — once a place of death, now a place of vision — a passage takes place: not toward redemption, but toward a starker form of awareness.
Since the 1980s, the artist’s work has moved along the porous border between the human and the natural, seeking traces of the other in what we believe to be ours. In this new stage of his journey, the photographic gaze becomes a tool for listening: traversed by memory, contaminated by myth, inhabited by the present.
The animals — not figures, but forces — appear as silent apparitions: resistant, solemn, wounded, and inviolable. They do not tell stories, but pose questions.
The images await our gaze. Like profane relics, they disrupt indifference and force the viewer into confrontation with what has been repressed. In this space — once a place of death, now a place of vision — a passage takes place: not toward redemption, but toward a starker form of awareness.
The exhibition opens with large-format photographic portraits dedicated to the world of bovines and equines, along with a set of four reinterpretations of late 19th-century historical photographs by Count Primoli depicting the Mattatoio, enriched by archival inscriptions from the Testaccio area belonging to the Archivio Capitolino.
The exhibition continues in dialogue between sculpture and photography with the series Mnemosyne — referencing the Atlas of Memory and the Pathosformel of Aby Warburg — and with a series of photographic elaborations derived from classical sculptures photographed in national and international museums. Both series retrace the movements and forms of zoomorphic subjects, derived from nature and classical antiquity, outlining a sort of emotional biography and at the same time a map of a civilization in a sacred relationship with the animal figure.
The final photographic series, which includes the human figure, testifies to a close, yet complex and perhaps contradictory relationship between human and animal.
The exhibition continues in dialogue between sculpture and photography with the series Mnemosyne — referencing the Atlas of Memory and the Pathosformel of Aby Warburg — and with a series of photographic elaborations derived from classical sculptures photographed in national and international museums. Both series retrace the movements and forms of zoomorphic subjects, derived from nature and classical antiquity, outlining a sort of emotional biography and at the same time a map of a civilization in a sacred relationship with the animal figure.
The final photographic series, which includes the human figure, testifies to a close, yet complex and perhaps contradictory relationship between human and animal.
The artist’s visual and, in some ways, visionary ability reveals the difficulty of attaining a knowledge of the non-human animal world that aspires to a balance that is not only aesthetic, but also ethical.
“I believe I have found the missing link between the animal and the civilized being. It is us.”
— Konrad Lorenz
— Konrad Lorenz
INFO
Mattatoio di Roma
Piazza Orazio Giustiniani, 4 – Rome
La Pelanda – Galleria delle Vasche
www.mattatoioroma.it – Facebook: @mattatoioroma – Instagram: @mattatoio – #MattatoioRoma
Mattatoio di Roma
Piazza Orazio Giustiniani, 4 – Rome
La Pelanda – Galleria delle Vasche
www.mattatoioroma.it – Facebook: @mattatoioroma – Instagram: @mattatoio – #MattatoioRoma
Opening Hours
Tuesday to Sunday: 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM – Free Admission
Closed on Mondays. Last entry one hour before closing time
Tuesday to Sunday: 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM – Free Admission
Closed on Mondays. Last entry one hour before closing time
PRESS OFFICE – AZIENDA SPECIALE PALAEXPO
Piergiorgio Paris | M. +39 347 8005911 – [email protected]
Federica Mariani | M. +39 366 6493235 – [email protected]
Adele Della Sala | M. +39 366 4435942 – [email protected]
Secretary: Dario Santarsiero | T. +39 06 69627 1205 – [email protected];
[email protected]
Piergiorgio Paris | M. +39 347 8005911 – [email protected]
Federica Mariani | M. +39 366 6493235 – [email protected]
Adele Della Sala | M. +39 366 4435942 – [email protected]
Secretary: Dario Santarsiero | T. +39 06 69627 1205 – [email protected];
[email protected]
