When, as an eighteen-year-old, Liselotte Höhs arrived in Venice, she fell in love with the city at first sight. Mozart's friend the Viennese doctor Mesmer, writing in the early 19th century, would have classified this fatal attraction as "animal magnetism", and explained it through the mysterious energetic fluid which enshrouds the whole universe and its living beings. Like Mesmer, Liselotte Höhs is convinced that there are forces, energies beyond those which are known to the exact sciences, secret interactions occuring between humans and other beings. It's no coincidence that she fell in love with Venice, the city which has spontaneously grown in the shape of a fish - she was even born under the sign of Pisces. An innate love between Venice and her, the same affection that she feels towards the animals who steadly fill up her creations. The concept of animal magnetism refers to a non-anthropocentric world view, which considers animals not as subordinates but as models. This is the reason we use to say "brave like a lion", "tame like a dog", "eyes like a hawk", etc..
Liselotte Höhs. Animal magnetism
Sale Monumentali of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana
Venezia San Marco – Museo Correr's entry
