Avid Accumulators Showcase Their Acquired Treasures
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Every collector of rare items pursues an unusual path, usually incomprehensible to those without a shared obsession. The shared aspect that unites these collectors is the need for physical space to accumulate the fruits of their peculiarities. This diverse group encompasses individuals who reject modern digital filtration and photo editing applications when examining their antique treasures, contrasting the common, superficial appraisal of allure.
One such collector is Iacopo Briano, a researcher of extraordinary objects, with expertise in natural history, and an avid admirer of wunderkammer. Briano travels the world in search of relics for his singular and unusual chronicle of human evolution, which spans between the fossil skeletons of allosaurs from 150 million years ago and contemporary space enterprise gadgets. From mummies of real animals to artificial chimeras designed to give birth to fantastical mythologies; showcasing beings that never existed, such as a pufferfish with the head of a rodent and the horns of a chamois, baring its teeth in anger. These period fake news were compiled by merchants of wonders for those seeking proof of diabolical unions, before the Chernobyl disaster. Closing the temporal loop, Briano's collection includes a rare prototype of the SOKOL K-11 cosmonaut suit model developed for the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz missions, marking the first collaboration between the United States and the Soviet Union and signifying the end of the space race.
Iacopo Briano is an expert in exceptional objects who nurtures a childhood fascination for the wunderkammer world since accompanying his malacologist father on trips. He curates collections for enthusiasts of the bizarre and works as an expert for international auction houses, co-founded the Art Sablon gallery in Brussels with Alessandro Ferrada and Jonathan F. Kugel, and curated the record auction Nature et Merveilles at Drouot in Paris in 2018, selling a pair of fighting dinosaurs to a private collector for 2.850.000 euros. In 2022, he is preparing the presentation of a complete allosaurus skeleton of 10 meters, set for June.
While grounded, the abyss of eccentricity can plunge into dark, unspeakable depths. As Giano Del Bufalo touches what appears to be a large, plump stuffed doll, one cannot help but ponder if it contains the mortal remains of the shaman it resembles. The drawings that adorn it are the same tattoos the shaman bore in life.
A towering elephant head with incredibly long tusks dominates the space, followed by a stuffed lion crowned and a pink flamingo… Both dead zoo animals given immortality by Giano. Beyond a simple naturalistic passion, the display of a cyclopean goat head, a rare natural anomaly with a new, sinister connotation when placed next to an Egyptian mummy's skull, an ancient priest who lost some teeth but retained his impeccable hair, embellishes the display, joined by one of the 50 miniaturized heads worldwide, trophy of headhunters, and African power clubs venerated as ceremonial flutes.
Entering this hidden world, one feels the passion for "Mysterium Tremendum" concealed behind ordinary objects often dismissed as folk. The wooden voodoo fetish impaled by dozens of large nails—with the one piercing the genitals found fatal—leaves one imagining the relic within contains human organic material, making the nails felt as piercing the toucher's own flesh. Visitors ogle a human skeleton hanging from the ceiling, its wings spread like an angel, brought from an English hospital. It was likely a forgotten homeless person, now ready to assume its ethereal destination.
Other collectors, like Iacopo Briano, are drawn to unconventional objects, such as space-and-astronomy gadgets from contemporary space enterprises, which complement his extensive collection of historical natural history relics. In his pursuit of the unusual, Briano also includes technology, such as the SOKOL K-11 cosmonaut suit, in his chronicle of human evolution.
