Ana Mazzei’s Cat’s Tail unfolds the magical universe of fiction and theatre where the lines between reality and fiction are blurry. Most of her artworks use the visual vocabulary of minimalism to portray a world turned upside down. Ana asks the viewer to reflect on the performative elements of our daily life, which encompasses the majority of our time. She wishes the viewer to realise the mystery, playfulness and fiction-like stories and characters surrounding us. By producing totem-like objects, she opens the theatre of worlds from different dimensions and explores the affect that is created by the activation of these totems.

A cat’s tail in literature has various historical and symbolic representations. In a world of uncertainties and ambiguities, a cat’s tail is a key component of conveying emotions—for example, a puffed-up tail conveys fear and an up-right tail can mean friendliness and calmness. There is an enigmatic sense created, a certain mystery hidden behind the cat’s tail, evoking the unknown.

Ana’s uniqueness lies in her ability to disassemble and deconstruct landscapes and pick up parts of images, expressed through varied forms and colours to allow the theatre of life to come to the viewer. It allows relief and freedom to lean into the darkness and the unknown. Just like fiction, dreams and plays, it comes to an end, but once the curtains are lifted again, life is staged anew.