The exhibition draws inspiration from the relationship between humans and animals, and from the representation of the animal kingdom as a mirror of human fears, desires, and identity itself. Through an exhibition itinerary encompassing sculptures, drawings, collages, paintings, and video installations, the featured works invite the public to redefine the boundaries between nature and culture, challenging the assumed superiority of the human species. For centuries, the line between human and animal was drawn with dogmatic rigour; however, this once sharp and categorical division has transformed into a nuanced continuum, where differences are a matter of degree rather than nature. The artworks on display, across various levels and through differing perspectives, reflect upon the centrality of the human gaze, demonstrating how conceptual barriers erected for centuries can collapse with remarkable ease when confronted with the rediscovery of our own animal nature.

For years, Luca Gioacchino Di Bernardo has engaged with this "obsessive need to juxtapose animals and humans," often remaining within a hybrid dimension, in a process of involution and uncertainty. In the subjects depicted in the artworks on display, there is nothing wild or brutal; rather, they serve as a reflection of contemporary humanity—theriomorphic creatures that evoke tenderness with their languid gazes while simultaneously surprising through their ambiguous and at times seductive nature.

In Shadi Harouni’s film The Owl’s Made a Nest in the Ruins of the Heart, a cow serves as the central presence around which histories of home, memory, and political struggle intertwine. The image of the cow which roams freely through a time-worn house in the Kurdish regions of Iran is accompanied by the voice of a former occupant: a Kurdish dissident, who, with a sense of humor and play, recounts fraught and painful personal and global histories of socio-political crises.

ThetwocollagesbyDamirOčkoarepartoftheDragFormsseries: eachdeconstructaspecificfear described in a vast catalogue of human phobias.
Euphoric Baton is therefore an anagram of Counterphobia, which is the preference by a phobic for fearful situations. Meanwhile, Oho I Probate is an anagram of Erotophobia, the fear of sexual love or sexual questions.

Rosa Panaro develops a deeply personal mythological universe, moving from the everyday dimension to delve into myth and the anxiety of the fantastic. Within this artistic journey, her Salamanders assume a strong paradigmatic value: linked to the legend that deems them immune to fire, they become a symbol of tenacity, resistance to evil, and the capacity for renewal. However, it is in her Liliths that the theme of the exhibition is best framed. Represented as a winged woman, the figure of Lilith marks the moment in which the mythical dimension definitively prevails over reality.

Completing the exhibition route is the work Alfabeto proverbiale by Tomaso Binga, whose elements are distributed across various points within the exhibition space. Moving through the display, visitors encounter the letters of an old school primer, to which the artist pairs poetic verses ranging from assertive to witty in tone. Through the frequent use of paronomasia (the play on words based on phonetic similarity), Binga invites the audience to take a positive action as opposed to a negative one.

Pop-up Gallery Genova, a project conceived by Laura Garbarino, brings contemporary art into the historic centre of Genoa without the need to establish new institutions, lengthy development processes, or institutional rhetoric. It adopts a light and agile format that temporarily transforms historic apartments into short-term residences for Italian and international galleries, invited to relocate to the city for several weeks to present specially conceived curatorial projects. PuGG emerges at a moment of growing international attention, when Genoa needs a visible and continuous contemporary presence. By reactivating vacant spaces, attracting a discerning audience, and creating new opportunities for the local cultural ecosystem, the project aims to help reshape the perception of the city.

The initiative begins with a first prototype venue: a private apartment located in the historic centre, on Vico San Luca, within Palazzo Gio Batta Grimaldi. The building is part of the Palazzi dei Rolli — a UNESCO World Heritage site — conceived in 1610 on the foundations of a structure dating back to the thirteenth century. It was built by the renowned Lombard architect Andrea Vannone and features rooms frescoed by De Ferrari.

Following the first launch in March 2026 with the Ciaccia-Levi Gallery in Paris, the second edition features the Tiziana Di Caro Gallery, one of the most representative galleries in Naples, in dialogue with Genoa.

Palazzo Gio Batta Grimaldi, Vico San Luca 7, Genova, @galleriatizianadicaro @popupgallerygenova