Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? – the installation

Centro de Desenvolvimento Humano da Fundação Cecilia Zino,

Funchal, Madeira, Portugal (2023)

a project funded by Funchal's City Council

room sheet here (by Vanessa Câmara)

The “Big Bad Wolf”. That creature that usually lives in woods and forests, waiting for its next meal (usually humans) and that, more and less directly, sets up the basis for many of the fears we develop throughout life. A master of disguise and cunning. A very dangerous predator; a barrier, an obstacle, an invention (?). In a reality increasingly led and shaped by fear and distrust, it may be important to redesign our relationship with this “Wolf” (with our fears) and understand how the various (re)presentations of this fabulous animal might have shaped our vision of and action in the world.

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What does it mean to “be bad”? • What is (a) “fear”? • Why are we afraid?

 

"Who's afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? – the installation" is organised like the body of a wolf lying down. The door is the mouth. There are two giant ears, two bright eyes, a bushy tail – some of the attributes that Little Red Riding Hood points out as "too big" to belong to her grandmother and which simultaneously represent three of the five human senses: hearing, sight and touch. That said, these are the same senses primarily invoked in the display.

 

The exhibition aims, then, to propose a journey through different fears and their constructions/deconstructions, culminating in the investigation of possible solutions; with the placement of stones in the Wolf's belly so that he drowns in the river. It is a possible entry in and exit of this anthropomorphic "beast" from children's folklore, its interior. A "rebirth" that comes after an understanding and disentanglement of fears and anxieties. It is necessary to literally dissect the Wolf (ergo our concept of "fear") to understand it.