Drawing on Harlequin from the Commedia dell’Arte, Ginevra Panzetti and Enrico Ticconi create a creature with constantly shifting identities. Through precise, rhythmic movements and a distinctive physical language, they build a world where laughter and unease exist side by side.

Inspired by grotesques, ancient ornaments in which humans, animals and fantastical creatures merge, Harleking unfolds as a series of metamorphoses. Movements, gazes and gestures are repeated, displaced and transformed, as the boundaries between the comic and the threatening gradually begin to blur.

Behind the playfulness lies a recognisable mechanism: what initially entertains, builds trust and evokes empathy can gradually tip over into influence and manipulation. In this way, Panzetti and Ticconi draw a line from Harlequin’s shifting expressions to a contemporary world in which humour, entertainment and communication can also be used to shape how we see, react and act.