APPARENZE_Ft. Aberto Michelon
An animal's biographer
A taxidermist is a solo character who works alone on tiny piece of ground with a graveyard all around him. As the famed author Fleur Jaeggy said in his novell I Gemelli, it is he who resurrects that which is vain, a conservationist of illusions. His laboratory is like an ark, needing however only one animal from each species as his technique and skill assures their survival without procreation. In Santa Evita by Tomas ELOY Martinez, when General Peron commissions the taxidermist to tend to his wife's body and make several copies in order to avoid the inevitable allegations that will follow, Doctor Ara says the art of embalming is similar to that of a biographer: both try to immobilize a life or a body in the right pose that must be remembered for an eternity. A taxidermist's hands move with a mnemonic rhythm of a blind artist, whose precision and knowing strokes are only comparable to those perhaps of a sculptor or a goldsmith.He has an almost hallucinatory intensity which he can visualize the animal, though dead, he can reanimate its soul.His creations can therefore become the gentlest of animals, as the saying goes it is a tamed beast who comes to its master. Taxidermy is a strict technique of sentimental memory, like post-mortem photography that developed in the Victorian era, where the wealthy upper classes would be photographed with the right delicate pose to be remembered forever. And so it is this magical ritual of permanence that gives the animal its temporary immortality.
Gabriele di Fronzo
Alberto Michelon (Padova, 1973) rat became interested in taxidermy during his university studies where he majored in Natural Sciences. He won the History of Biology Award with his thesis presentation from The National Academy of Science and decided to make taxidermy his full time profession. After having worked in a bottega in central Italy for 2 years, Michelon decided to leave his mentor's studio to seek new opportunities abroad where he then worked in various museums of natural history in Spain, Portugal and the united States. He came back eventually to Italy where he founded his own Animal Factory Studio. Quite an ambitious and unique project that allows Michelon to give a new prospective to an old craft that ha been all but abandoned, and redirect it into the art world.
Alberto Michelon (Padova, 1973) si interessa alla tassidermia durante gli studi di scienze naturali. Vinto il premio tesi di laurea in storia della biologia bandito dall'Accademia Nazionale delle Scienze dette dei XL, decide di fare della tassidermia la sua professione. Dopo aver trascorso due anni in una bottega del centro Italia, Michelon lascia il suo maestro per intraprendere nuove avventure all'estero: lavora nei musei di storia naturale in Spagna, Portogallo e negli Stati Uniti. Rientrato in Italia fonda Animal Factor Studio, un progetto ambizioso con il quale Michelon da una nuova prospettiva artigianale ad una pratica ormai abbandonata proiettandola nel mondo dell'arte.
Animal Factor Studio
Tassidermia Artistica
www.animalfactorstudio.it - info@animalfactorstudio.it
