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Published on the occasion of the exhibition Chrysalis: The Butterfly Dream, curated by Andrea Bellini and held at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève in 2023, its eponymous catalog documents and completes this ambitious and multifaceted project through the work of the more than fifty artists involved, ranging from historical and iconic figures to emerging artists.

Organized in collaboration with the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, the exhibition paid homage to the world’s never-ending metamorphosis and all its organic (and inorganic) inhabitants. Chrysalis explored the concept of mutability from a wide range of different formal, existential, and political angles. Each thing, each image, and each form in this exhibition was in flux—shifting from one state to another, becoming something else, cycling through multiple identities.

Far from simply documenting the exhibition, this catalogue reflects the polyphonic and polymorphic nature of the project and analyzes the notion of metamorphosis, through a number of contributions, from different perspectives, including art history, literary criticism, philosophy, design, music, architecture, virtual reality, anthropology, and poetry. The purpose is not to circumscribe the subject, ungraspable by its very nature, but to show the richness of its implications, and to focus on an urgency: the physical and political necessity of any body to claim its right to a fluid, hybrid identity, subject to constant transformation.

The exhibition included works by: Paul Amar, Eleanor Antin, Marcel Bascoulard, Cecilia Bengolea, Marie Bouttier, Leigh Bowery, Genesis & Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge, Marguerite Burnat-Provins, Monster Chetwynd, Eleni Christodoulou, Kirby Dick, Janko Domsic, Bob Flanagan, Faye Formisano, Nagi Gianni & ReveRso & Yotta Baka, Fergus Greer, Guo Fengyi, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Dunya Hirschter, Juliana Huxtable, Juliet Jacques, Davood Koochaki, Gabriel Kuri, Marie Losier, Ana Lupas, Tomasz Machciński, Plinio Martelli, Jacopo Mazzetti, Pierre Molinier, Jota Mombaça, Ataa Oko, Luigi Ontani, Frida Orupabo, Ventura Profana, Agnes Questionmark, Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Grisélidis Réal, André Romão, Rachel Rose, Mathilde Rosier, Sergio Sarri, Luigi Serafini, Cindy Sherman, Marianna Simnett, Sin Wai Kin, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Kiki Smith, Jenna Sutela, Kaari Upson, Raphaela Vogel, Pedro Wirz, Mayara Yamada & Ursulina de Lombardia, Anicka Yi, Anna Zemánková and Bruno Zhu.

Edited by Andrea Bellini
Essays by Andrea Bellini, Barbara Brondi & Marco Rainò, Federico Campagna, Emanuele Coccia, Andrea Cortellessa, Javier Fernández Contreras, Francesco Fusaro, Stefano Gualeni, Juliet Jacques, Michael Jakob, Hanna Limulja, Jota Mombaça, Stéphanie-Aloysia Moretti, Sabrina Tarasoff, and Jehane Zouyene.
Design Lorenzo Mason Studio

To buy the book in French, please head to the French version of the website.