Dario Li Gioi

The zoological garden of Rome was built in 1908 and is among the oldest in Europe. In 1994, after the economic crisis caused by the decline in revenue at the end of the 1980s, it was transformed into a Bioparco.

From a place of speculative entertainment to a structure that conserves animal species at risk of extinction and carries out environmental education activities. This change has generated new revenue and economic stability. Covid-19 has, however, led to a new crisis.

But visitors aren't observing what is happening behind the scenes. A machine that ensures its life and a new function: the protection of species. Habitat degradation, resource overexploitation and climate change are factors that are leading to the extinction of hundreds of animals. 

Despite the criticism of animal rights activists, who do not accept animals being kept in captivity, with all the consequences on their health and emotional state and who had demanded for the animals to be transferred to wildlife recovery centers, the Bioparco's of Rome and of the world, continue to exist. Why? To shake off a collective sense of guilt towards animals, to dream of giving them a new future, to transform this place into an island of salvation?

The Hidden Life of Animals is a project that aims to reflect on the complex relationship between man and animal. If once animals were at the center of our existence, the world we have built over the centuries has moved animals away from us, modifying or destroying their habitat. Their existence, however, fascinates us.

The zoo is one of those places where this fascination and the man-animal relationship is concentrated. The Hidden zoo wants to investigate this relationship through some of the main European bioparks.

Modern bioparks are a frontier place between a world that no longer exists and one that would like to be. A modern Noah's Ark to climb on before it's too late.