FORNASETTI, FROM MILAN TO PARMA WITH A NEW EXHIBITION

Hundreds of creations by ‘Atelier Fornasetti‘ arrived in Parma to create an intriguing continuum between past and present. Hosted by Complesso Momumentale della Pilotta, ‘Fornasetti Theatrum Mundi’ is a dialogue between the works of the Milanese brand and the collections of the Pilotta. The exhibition, on view until February 14, 2021, is part of the “Revitalisation of the Contemporary“. It is conceived to mark Parma 2020+21 Italian Capital of Culture. The curators of this layered journey between the classic and the modern are Barnaba Fornasetti, Artistic Director of the Atelier, Valeria Manzi, co-curator of cultural activities and President of the Fornasetti Cult Association, and Simone Verde, Director of the Complesso Monumentale della Pilotta. ‘Fornasetti Theatrum Mundi’ creates a dialogue between the architecture and artworks of the Pilotta, and the imagination of Piero Fornasetti and Barnaba Fornasetti, thus giving birth to an actual “theatre of the world.”

A network of iconographic references and cultural suggestions reveals the intellectual mandate of the works on display, highlighting their depth. A true “Theatrum” as the term was understood to mean in the sixteenth century, articulating the encyclopedic entirety of knowledge in the infinite variety of the world.

The exhibition’s itinerary is divided into several sections relating to the main themes of Fornasetti’s work. Ruins and the use of the past as a fragment, architecture, music, variations on a theme, drawing, graphics, collecting, everyday objects, and the dimension of illusion and dreams. Indeed objects such as the Fornasetti plates establish a profound dialogue with the spaces of the Pilotta, echoing their associations with culture, thought, dream and imagination.