Koen Vanmechelen

HAIR OF THE MEDUSA

Venice, Italy

Alfa Arte is honoured to have brought part of Koen Vanmechelen’s visionary universe to life with Hair of the Medusa, an intricate composition in patinated bronze where snakes and chickens intertwine in a composition of extraordinary technical and symbolic complexity.

The piece was presented as part of We Thought We Were Alone, exhibited at Palazzo Rota Ivancich during the Venice Biennale. Every detail demanded precision, sensitivity, and technical experimentation — a challenging process that pushed craftsmanship and material to their limits.

Vanmechelen, renowned for his exploration of identity, biodiversity, and the human condition through the symbol of the chicken, transforms Hair of the Medusa into a powerful metaphor: the mythical figure that turns the gaze to stone, reborn as an entanglement of animal life and untamed nature. Seeing the work finally inhabit the historic spaces of the palazzo was, for us, as revelatory as the process of creating it.