Emotions are a fundamental part of our experience of life and shape many of our decisions and actions, both as individuals and in groups. And the body is the site where they make themselves known: unlike sentiments, emotions are driven by prelinguistic forces and manifest themselves in visible actions or movements on the face, in the voice or in specific forms of behaviour or gestures triggered by different stimuli. Representing these emotions has been a recurring theme throughout the history of art: basic shared human emotions—such as fear, sorrow, anger and happiness—are turned into aesthetic emotions represented through gestures, signs and other forms that have survived the passage of time.

The exhibition Poetics of Emotions looks at three different ways in which emotions have been represented in art over the centuries. The subjects in the first group of works are portrayed as expressing sorrow or suffering—an example of pathos. In the second group of pieces, the artists express emotions metaphorically by shifting their mood to the landscape or the architecture in their work. Finally, the third group explores how art appropriates the emotions that underpin social interactions, from social and political movements to popular celebrations and festivities.