Luigi Serafini, “Codex Seraphinianus”, plate
Mart Rovereto
The dream of Luigi Serafini
12 JULY 2024 – 20 OCTOBER 2024
The Mart of Rovereto dedicates to Luigi Serafini an in-depth anthology on the artist’s vast creative activity which involves the fields of architecture, design, painting, sculpture, graphics, photography and digital art.
The exhibition itinerary starts from the Codex Seraphinianus, Serafini’s universal undertaking which first attracted the attention of critics. A fantastic encyclopedia, printed for the first time in 1981 by Franco Maria Ricci and then the subject of reprints and international editions several times. A cult object all over the world, the Codex has received favor in various fields and has enthusiastic and well-known supporters in intellectual and artistic circles, such as Italo Calvino, Federico Zeri, Umberto Eco, Tim Burton, Jean-Michel Jarre, Orhan Pamuk, Philippe Starck and Fernando Arrabal.
In an installation designed by the artist, the itinerary highlights Serafini’s unbeatable mastery in the production of the fantastic image, crossing his entire creative arc: from the experience within the Memphis architecture and design group, up to the artist’s house , now the subject of a legal battle for its preservation. The wide selection of original plates from the Codex introduces the relationship between the artist and the book object, investigated through the plates of two other publications by Serafini, Pulcinellopaedia Seraphiniana, a fantastic interpretation of the Neapolitan myth of Pulcinella, and Storie naturali, an atlas of imagined botany. Overall, the project highlights a universe driven by invention and lightness in which bizarreness and truth, irony and seduction continually exchange roles.
The exhibition is supported by Altemasi, Fondazione Silvano Toti, Casse Rurali Trentine and Cassa Rurale AltoGarda e Rovereto.
From an idea by Vittorio Sgarbi. Edited by Andrea Cortellessa, Denis Isaia, Pietro Nocita.
