CHIARA CAPOBIANCO | ARCHITECTURE OF A METAMORPHOSIS

The exhibition project Architecture of a Metamorphosis arises from a precise authorial vision. Chiara Capobianco—artist, curator, and originator of the entire conceptual and spatial framework—conceived, designed, and produced the works specifically for this exhibition, in close dialogue with Michele Citro, curator ad affectum, a figure of critical accompaniment. Together, they established a direct and inseparable relationship with the space of the Galleria delle Vasche. The realization and installation of the exhibition layout were developed under the technical coordination of Lorenzo Torda, Head of Production and Exhibition Design.
 

The narrative of the exhibition is entrusted to Alfonso Tornitore, art historian and critic active in Rome at the Italian Ministry of Culture, whose research focuses on the relationship between contemporary art, education, and new technologies, including artificial intelligence.
 

Architecture of a Metamorphosis is a unified, immersive exhibition project that investigates transformation as a permanent condition of existence. Transformation is not conceived as an endpoint or a promise of rebirth, but as a state of continuous tension—fragile and unstable. The conceptual foundation of the exhibition draws inspiration from the myths narrated in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, whose themes—fluid identities, the body, desire, loss, and resistance—become tools for interrogating the present.

At the core of the research emerges the female body, understood as a site of mutation and strength, compelled to constantly redefine itself between external pressures and inner processes. Change is not celebrated, but exposed in its emotional and material complexity.
 

The exhibition unfolds as a physical and symbolic journey, guiding visitors through a narrative path composed of thresholds, fractures, passages, and resistances. It is articulated into seven chapters, conceived as expansive narrative zones that host a plurality of works, languages, and visual situations. Each chapter is not a closed section but an open field of exploration, inviting visitors to linger, retrace their steps, and discover ever-shifting relationships and resonances. The exhibition does not propose a single, linear reading nor a finite set of elements; rather, it seeks to evoke a sense of continuous discovery, in which works gradually emerge as fragments of a larger organism in constant transformation.
 

Architecture of a Metamorphosis is conceived in direct relation to the architecture of the Galleria delle Vasche at La Pelanda, within the Mattatoio complex in the Testaccio district, behind Monte dei Cocci—an emblematic site currently undergoing profound cultural regeneration promoted by the City of Rome. The exhibition openly engages with this evolving identity, activating the space as an integral part of the narrative through essential and rigorous display solutions—fabrics, suspensions, fragments, progressive openings—while avoiding any superfluous decorative elements.
 

Fragmentation and structural instability become foundational elements of the visual language. The recurring presence of black represents a pain that does not erupt, but settles over time, becoming matter. The exhibition path leads to a moment of suspension and condensation, followed by a monumental and collective finale, restoring female figures as active subjects.
 

From the opening onward, the artist will be engaged for approximately two weeks in the creation of the final work of the exhibition: a large-scale live painting on canvas (3.50 × 1.80 m), conceived to be produced in situ in the presence of the public as the visual and symbolic epilogue of the exhibition.

Architecture of a Metamorphosis is not an exhibition to be exhausted in a single glance. It is a journey to be traversed multiple times, as each chapter holds the possibility of a new discovery.