Colonialism and Predation Explored in Four-Artist Show at PAV Turin

The PAV in Turin presents "La natura e la preda – Storie e cartografie coloniali", a group exhibition curated by Marco Scotini featuring Irene Coppola, Edoardo Manzoni, Daniele Marzorati, and Alessandra Messali. The show examines how power constructs social identities and uncovers physical traces of colonial repression. Marzorati's works include "Déplacement Paris – Shanghai", documenting plane trees in Shanghai's former French Concession as symbols of architectural hegemony, and "Kadù e Squalo martello" and "Of the darker to the lighter – Atlante del corpo coloniale", which interrogate colonial objects in Italian natural history museums. Manzoni presents installations exploring seduction and persuasion in hunting, such as "Senza titolo (Fame)" and "Senza titolo (Canti)", and reinterprets colonial hunting trophy photos from 1920s Somalia in "Senza titolo (Caccia grossa)". Coppola, with Vito Priolo, addresses neocolonization in her work with Panama's indigenous Guna community, featuring the installation "Sin los habitantes no hay patrimonio" and audio by Ignacio Crespo Evanis. Messali's "Emilio Salgari and the Tiger" is a relational project in Assam, India, using Salgari's adventure novels to stage a theatrical script with local college students, deconstructing exoticist narratives from late 19th-early 20th century Italian culture. The exhibition runs at PAV, Turin, in 2022.