Roger Ballen. Animalism

Born in New York in 1950 and considered one of the most influential voices in contemporary photography, Roger Ballen has lived and worked in South Africa for over forty years. In the exhibition hosted in Pavilion 9a of the Mattatoio di Roma, promoted by the Department of Culture of Roma Capitale and Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, Ballen explores the deep and often disturbing relationship between human beings and animals, a research project he has been pursuing for over two decades. Grotesque and poetic, the images on display highlight how ephemeral and fleeting the distinction between human and beast is, and how animals are both an external presence and an intrinsic part of the human psyche.

Specifically devised for the exhibition space of the Mattatoio, the exhibition is conceived as a single installation that transforms the former Roman slaughterhouse, where animals were once killed, into a theater in which primeval instincts and the absurd hold sway. The exhibition unfolds in three rooms, offering an immersive yet contemplative experience of Ballen’s work. A selection of twenty-one photographs taken between 1996 and 2016 are on display in a bright introductory space. Visitors then move on to a central space immersed in darkness, with eight asynchronous projectors presenting over eighty photographs from Ballen’s major projects (Outland, Shadow Chamber, Boarding House, Asylum of the Birds and Roger's Rats), and finally to the lightboxes and video animations from the Apparitions series.

The chronological arrangement of the photographs reflects the evolution of the artist’s visual language: from a more strictly documentary practice to an intense staging of the photographic space, up to the most experimental creations with a pictorial impact.