January 24 – March 7, 2026
On January 24, 2026, at 5:30 PM, Galleria ZEMA presents On Becoming A Wolf, an exhibition by Francesca Cao, a photographic project developed and curated by the artist herself using Errore Metodico (Methodical Error), a patented analogue photographic technique based on the intentional superimposition of multiple frames during the shooting process.
Far from adopting a documentary approach, the work unfolds as an introspective and psychoanalytic narrative, a visual exploration of female liberation through an intimate, instinctive, and imperfect visual language.
Indeed, the images do not seek to represent an objective reality, but rather open up an emotional space in which memory and the present, consciousness and the unconscious, control and surrender can coexist. At the heart of the project lies a reconsideration of the relationship between photography and truth, which, through the artist’s dual role as author and curator, becomes an integral part of the creative process itself.
While photographic tradition has often emphasized the medium’s fidelity and the honesty of the photographic document, here photography is understood as a space for subjective experience, reflection, and potential inner revelation. The photographic image thus emerges as unstable and layered, permeated by tensions and shifts, opening up the possibility of an alternative reality that mirrors an intimate imaginary world.
In this sense, the project engages in a dialogue with certain aspects of André Breton’s Surrealism, which recognized artistic expression as a means of accessing the unconscious. Through the deliberate use of error and the unexpected, a camera dating from 1936 is gradually freed from its function as an instrument of control, becoming an active part of the creative process. Blurring, movement, and superimpositions emerge as traces of non-rational thought, as manifestations of a deeper dimension that has not been fully tamed.
The superimposition of frames generates suspended images, akin to the logic of lucid dreaming, leaving room for multiple interpretations. Through this gradual relinquishment of control, photography moves away from digital perfection, reclaiming error as a generative act.
As Alessia Locatelli, curator of the Biennale of Women’s Photography, writes:
“This approach creates images that are sometimes intimate, at other times narrative and metaphorical, transcending conventional norms. The work challenges the notion of human error, highlighting historical instances in which mistakes have led to groundbreaking discoveries, echoing the resilience and lateral thinking essential to human creativity. This methodological departure embraces the unpredictability of human emotion, moving away from Cartesian rationality towards the exploration of infinite possibilities.”
The title On Becoming a Wolf refers to Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run with the Wolves and can be understood as an invitation to rediscover the wild soul, breaking free from the obsession with order, control, and perfect form. Throughout this journey, photography seeks to free itself from the burden of representation, becoming an experience of light and matter, a space onto which the viewer can project their own inner world.
Truth does not reside on the surface of the image but comes to life within the inner world of the viewer, in that fragile yet powerful realm where the self ceases to exercise control and perhaps begins to become.
On Sunday, January 25, from 3:00 PM to 7:30 PM, the artist will be at the gallery for a portrait session using the Errore Metodico (Methodical Error) technique. Those interested can book an appointment by emailing the gallery.
