EXHIBITION

EXHIBITION                                                                                                    Visioni in Scena

Visions on stage

Photography, Movement and Cinematic Illusion

Visions on Stage grew out of an encounter between art and cinema, two languages that, throughout the twentieth century and into the present day, have continued to observe, influence and transform each other’s codes.

Cinema, known as the seventh art, is not merely storytelling through images. It is light, movement, rhythm, editing, colour, darkness, set design, illusion and the construction of a way of seeing. While cinema has often found a source of inspiration in art and artists, this exhibition also traces the movement in the opposite direction: artists turning to cinema, its films, its protagonists and its visual devices, and transforming them into the material of their work.

The presence of Salvador Dalí is emblematic of one of the most fruitful relationships between art and cinema in the twentieth century. His collaboration with Luis Buñuel on Un Chien Andalou and L’Âge d’Or, his relationship with Alfred Hitchcock, and Destino, the project created with Walt Disney, all bear witness to an interest that extends beyond painting and engages directly with the language of film. Dalí’s exploration also encompasses set design, theatre and ballet, culminating in works in which movement, optical illusion and the transformation of the image seem to challenge the very stillness of painting.

In Alessandro Valeri’s work, cinema becomes memory, experience and narrative construction. His training maintains a direct connection with photography, light and cinematic language, while his series devoted to the circus draws on the world of Federico Fellini, and La strada in particular. That encounter with cinema later became a lived experience when, in 1999, Valeri spent more than a month with the Togni Circus, photographing above all what happens behind the scenes: moments of waiting, silence, preparation and the performers’ vulnerability.

Another perspective is offered by Yann C., whose research focuses on the great icons of cinema. Faces drawn from the collective cinematic imagination become images constructed through material, relief and light. Their recognisability also depends on the viewer’s distance: seen up close, the image tends to fragment across the surface of the work; from farther away, the face comes together again. The work thus becomes a reflection on how we perceive film stars: figures who seem close and familiar, yet remain distant, transformed by distance, memory and myth.

With André Che Isse, by contrast, light takes centre stage. His backlit works use the contrast between illumination and darkness as an integral part of the composition. The image seems to emerge through light itself, recalling one of cinema’s fundamental principles: the darkness of the theatre and the beam of light that makes the scene visible.

In the work of Fausto De Nisco, Dallari&Malavasi and Abraham Sidney Ofei Nkansah, the relationship with cinema becomes more immediate and narrative. Their works engage directly with cinema and individual films, taking them as the point of departure for new visual interpretations.

A cinematic reference does not necessarily take the form of a visible or immediately recognisable quotation. In some cases, the film acts instead as the deep origin of the work: an atmosphere, a tension, an emotion or an inner image that the artist absorbs and transforms through their own language. The connection with cinema may therefore remain almost invisible to the eye, yet continue to live within the work’s most intimate structure. In other cases, the cinematic reference becomes the starting point for a broader reflection, one capable of moving beyond the film itself and opening onto universal, symbolic or social themes.

With Adriano Venturelli, the dialogue unfolds through colour. The Colors series invites reflection on the great transformation that marked the history of cinema: the transition from black-and-white images tocolour film. In his works, colour is not merely decorative; it creates atmosphere, emotion and perception, just as it does in cinematic language, where chromatic choices can radically alter the way a scene is read.

Visions on Stage thus creates a journey in which cinema is not simply represented, but explored through its fundamental elements: film, the face, light, darkness, colour, movement, the stage, memory and illusion.

Painting, photography, sculpture and installation become different ways of bringing cinema into the work of art.

From the screen to matter, and from matter back to vision, the image continues to transform.

Exhibition                              Visioni in Scena

Visions on stage

Photography, Movement and Cinematic Illusion

Visions on Stage grew out of an encounter between art and cinema, two languages that, throughout the twentieth century and into the present day, have continued to observe, influence and transform each other’s codes.

Cinema, known as the seventh art, is not merely storytelling through images. It is light, movement, rhythm, editing, colour, darkness, set design, illusion and the construction of a way of seeing. While cinema has often found a source of inspiration in art and artists, this exhibition also traces the movement in the opposite direction: artists turning to cinema, its films, its protagonists and its visual devices, and transforming them into the material of their work.

The presence of Salvador Dalí is emblematic of one of the most fruitful relationships between art and cinema in the twentieth century. His collaboration with Luis Buñuel on Un Chien Andalou and L’Âge d’Or, his relationship with Alfred Hitchcock, and Destino, the project created with Walt Disney, all bear witness to an interest that extends beyond painting and engages directly with the language of film. Dalí’s exploration also encompasses set design, theatre and ballet, culminating in works in which movement, optical illusion and the transformation of the image seem to challenge the very stillness of painting. In Alessandro Valeri’s work, cinema becomes memory, experience and narrative construction. His training maintains a direct connection with photography, light and cinematic language, while his series devoted to the circus draws on the world of Federico Fellini, and La strada in particular. That encounter with cinema later became a lived experience when, in 1999, Valeri spent more than a month with the Togni Circus, photographing above all what happens behind the scenes: moments of waiting, silence preparation and the performers’ vulnerability.

Another perspective is offered by Yann C., whose research focuses on the great icons of cinema. Faces drawn from the collective cinematic imagination become images constructed through material, relief and light. Their recognisability also depends on the viewer’s distance: seen up close, the image tends to fragment across the surface of the work; from farther away, the face comes together again. The work thus becomes a reflection on how we perceive film stars: figures who seem close and familiar, yet remain distant, transformed by distance, memory and myth.

With André Che Isse, by contrast, light takes centre stage. His backlit works use the contrast between illumination and darkness as an integral part of the composition. The image seems to emerge through light itself, recalling one of cinema’s fundamental principles: the darkness of the theatre and the beam of light that makes the scene visible.

In the work of Fausto De Nisco, Dallari&Malavasi and Abraham Sidney Ofei Nkansah, the relationship with cinema becomes more immediate and narrative. Their works engage directly with cinema and individual films, taking them as the point of departure for new visual interpretations.

A cinematic reference does not necessarily take the form of a visible or immediately recognisable quotation. In some cases, the film acts instead as the deep origin of the work: an atmosphere, a tension, an emotion or an inner image that the artist absorbs and transforms through their own language. The connection with cinema may therefore remain almost invisible to the eye, yet continue to live within the work’s most intimate structure. In other cases, the cinematic reference becomes the starting point for a broader reflection, one capable of moving beyond the film itself and opening onto universal, symbolic or social themes.

With Adriano Venturelli, the dialogue unfolds through colour. The Colors series invites reflection on the great transformation that marked the history of cinema: the transition from black-and-white images tocolour film. In his works, colour is not merely decorative; it creates atmosphere, emotion and perception, just as it does in cinematic language, where chromatic choices can radically alter the way a scene is read.

Visions on Stage thus creates a journey in which cinema is not simply represented, but explored through its fundamental elements: film, the face, light, darkness, colour, movement, the stage, memory and illusion.

Painting, photography, sculpture and installation become different ways of bringing cinema into the work of art.

From the screen to matter, and from matter back to vision, the image conti