Santa Maria della Scala

ZOOMANIA: animals, hybrids and monsters in human cultures

A journey in space and time through words, images and objects to describe an ancient and fascinating subject: the relationship between man and animals.

Siena Municipal Council

Santa Maria della Scala

The University of Siena
Interdepartmental Centre for Anthropological Study of Ancient Cultures

Tuscan Regional Archaeology Office

A journey in space and time through words, images and objects to describe an ancient and fascinating subject: the relationship between man and animals. This is the idea behind Zoomania, set up by Cristiana Franco with the help of Alessandro Arrigoni, Loredana Mancini, Sabrina Tonutti and Cristiano Viglietti. The exhibition aims of highlight zooanthropological themes that demonstrate the richness and complexity of this relationship: as well as giving space to cultural contexts in which animals appear next to man as a symbolic projection, or as the “subject” in a servile relationship (the animal at work, the prey, the sacrificial victim, but also the epiphany of the sacred, attribute of divinity, etc.), the exhibition also seeks to highlight the central role that animals have played as man’s partner in his biological and cultural history.

In “Zoomania”, archaeological finds from Tuscan museums are exhibited alongside objects of the past and present belonging to various distant and local cultural traditions – from Oceania to Japan, from Amerindian societies to small rural villages in the Italian countryside – alternated with images and words to evoke some of the most important aspects of the relationship between man and animals. This relationship, originating hundreds of thousands of years ago, has oriented and sometimes dictated fundamental outcomes in the history of Homo sapiens and other animals: consider, for example, the selective power that human cultures have in fostering and adapting some species and condemning others to extinction; or, vice versa, the role that domestic animals have played in the development of sedentary cultures of agricultural vocation, or as masters of cognitive, technical and locomotory performances that have driven the development of technology.
The aim is therefore not to simply reflect through citations, images and objects on how the imagination of human societies is full of animals – from Palaeolithic cave paintings to the cyborgs of the postmodern age - but to encourage reflection on some salient aspects of the relationship between man and animal and its development through history.

The exhibition is divided into eight thematic areas:
Fascination with the theriomorph
Servile relationships
Predators and prey
Victims and products
Friendships, adoptions and relatives
The knowledge and powers of animals
With the gods
Hybrids and monsters

The exhibition was set up with the support of the Fondazione Monte dei Paschi di Siena and the contribution of Banca Monte dei Paschi, main sponsor.

The Zoomania catalogne, edited by Cristiana Franco, is published by Protagon Editori Toscani,
Series “Quaderni di Santa Maria della Scala” ( pagg. 176, € 21,00).

For information:
Segreteria del Santa Maria della Scala
tel. +39 0577/224811 – 224835 – 224830
fax +39 0577/224829
infoscala@sms.comune.siena.it
www.santamariadellascala.com



Opening hours: every day, Sundays and holidays included 10.30 – 18.30
Tickets: entrance to the exhibition is included in the price of the entrance ticket to the Santa Maria della Scala museum complex (Full price €6; Concessions € 3.50)