We Hybrids! at Istituto Svizzero Roma Explores Post-Human Hybridity

The exhibition 'We Hybrids!' opened at the Istituto Svizzero di Roma, curated by new Head Curator Gioia Dal Molin. It features six Swiss artists: Vanessa Billy, Chloé Delarue, Florian Germann, Gabriele Garavaglia, Dominique Koch, and Pamela Rosenkranz. Rosenkranz revisits themes from her 2015 Swiss Pavilion at the Venice Biennale installation 'Our Product' with 'Sexual Power', where Viagra consumed by the artist during creation and blue latex gloves evoke skin and post-pandemic distancing. Garavaglia's performance shows a fungal-mycotic composition on his skin, referencing Donna Haraway's cyborg theory. Koch's video 'Holobiont Society' (coined by Lynn Margulis in 1991) suggests contemporary capitalism uses hybridity that can degenerate into cannibalism. Germann's mechanical works echo 'Blade Runner' with liquid surfaces of gasoline and oil resembling blood. Billy presents new hybrid works with pink glass bulbs and 'Chromosomes' sculptures. Delarue's 'TAFAA' series combines organic and inorganic materials in a post-apocalyptic assemblage. The next exhibition curated by Dal Molin, 'Cronache di quel tempo', opens October 31 at Archivio Storico Comunale in Palermo, featuring artists Maria Iorio and Raphaël Cuomo.