Extract from an interview by Michael Frahm on the occasion of the artist's solo exhibition at Blenheim Palace, Oxford (2019):
MF - "Integral to the topos of portraiture is a desire for immortality. Which of your self-portraits in the exhibition would best immortalise you and why ?"
MC - "Ego, being the latest, is definitely the closest to my personality nowadays !"
MF - I"n putting the show together, you were very specific about the proximity of certain works. La Nona Ora and Ego, the taxidermy crocodile, should be near each other, you said. Why?"
MC - "Most of the time I act purely on intuition : I had no specific reason in mind when I requested that. But seen from a distance now, I would say the juxtaposition could be read as a visual association of two sacrifices."
MF - "Taxidermy, of course, has been central to your practice. Your use of horses and pigeons, for example, is very evocative and speaks to the way these animals are perceived culturally. So why a crocodile for this new work ?"
MC - "For the same reasons : crocodiles have been protagonists of rituals, religions, magical beliefs, urban legends. They are creatures that both scare and fascinate and have been deeply symbolic since the very beginning of humanity."
- 2024 : "Eccentric. The Aesthetics of Freedom" (group exhibition), Pinakothek Der Moderne, Munich, Germany (another edition exhibited)
- 2023 : Cremona Baptistery, Cremona, Italy (another edition exhibited)
- 2021 : "Arcimboldo Face to Face", Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France (another edition exhibited)
- 2019 : "Victory is Not an Option", Blenheim Palace, Oxford, UK (another edition exhibited)