By Our Editorial Staff
Don’t miss the exhibition of ‘Isabelle Salari – The shape of rebirth. Between light, matter and transformation’, from 20 April to 29 May 2026 in the spaces of Palazzo Gallenga, home of the University for Foreigners of Perugia; also interesting is the exhibition project between fairy tale, memory and new visions by the artist Maria Cristina Bigerna, entirely dedicated to Pinocchio.
Let’s start with the exhibition of Isabelle Salari, curated by the “La Casa degli Artisti” Association. The title, The shape of rebirth. Between light, matter and transformation, already suggests a direction: that of a painting that does not describe, but crosses. In fact, Salari’s works move in a profoundly abstract territory, where colour becomes a primary language and the pictorial material becomes an emotional space.
Born in Perugia to an Iranian father and an Italian-French mother, the artist brings a naturally intercultural dimension to her research, which is reflected in an open and layered sensibility. Her relationship with painting was precocious and instinctive: she began painting at the age of five, immediately revealing a strong attraction for abstraction and the expressive power of colour.
Over time, this initial momentum has been consolidated in a path also recognized by important figures on the artistic and cultural scene, from Achille Bonito Oliva to Vittorio Sgarbi, who have followed and supported her evolution. Her works have been exhibited in national and international contexts, helping to define a research in continuous transformation. The exhibition focuses precisely on this process: transformation as a necessary condition, as a continuous passage between balance and tension, between light and material density.
The canvases do not offer a linear narrative, but invite the viewer to a direct, almost physical experience, in which the pictorial gesture becomes a trace of a change. Inserted in the context of the University for Foreigners, a symbolic place of encounter between cultures, the exhibition, with free admission, further strengthens the dialogue between different languages and backgrounds, in line with the vocation of the artist and with the vision of the promoting association.
‘Once upon a time there was Pinocchio’, an exhibition project between fairy tale, memory and new visions, was conceived for the two hundredth anniversary – which occurs this year – since the birth of Carlo Collodi, pseudonym of Carlo Lorenzini, author of one of the most loved and recognizable texts in world literature.
“Once upon a time… – A king! – my little readers will immediately say. No, guys, you were wrong. Once upon a time there was a piece of wood”. From that incipit, published for the first time in 1881 in the ‘Giornale per i bambini’, a story was born capable of crossing eras, languages and generations, transforming itself into a shared imagination.
Starting from this anniversary, the Association “La Casa degli Artisti” proposes an exhibition project dedicated to Pinocchio, reinterpreting his world through the contemporary gaze of the artist Maria Cristina Bigerna. Her painting moves in a territory suspended between illustration and visual storytelling. Her Pinocchios inhabit airy, almost theatrical spaces, where colour, bright and vibrant, builds emotional atmospheres even before real environments.
The figures are light, dynamic, often caught in movement or in relation, as in a scene that continues beyond the painting. The puppet thus becomes a contemporary character: he plays, observes, grows, compares. At times ironic, at times poetic, he maintains that dimension of imperfection that makes him close, recognizable. Next to him appear symbolic elements: the moon, the city, nature. The narrative sense is thus amplified without ever weighing it down. What emerges is an immediate but not superficial visual language, capable of speaking to different audiences, maintaining a lightness that is a stylistic code but also a precise choice.
The exhibition project is imagined as a flexible exhibition, adaptable to different contexts (museum spaces, cultural institutions, exhibition and educational venues) with the aim of activating a dialogue between work, space and public. Alongside the artistic dimension, the figure of Collodi remains central: an author who, in addition to Pinocchio, played a significant role in the cultural and linguistic construction of post-unification Italy, with a careful, often ironic, look at the society of his time.
Two hundred years after his birth, Pinocchio thus continues to generate new interpretations. This project is part of that groove, proposing a contemporary reinterpretation capable of moving between memory and present, between narration and vision. The exhibition project is currently available to be hosted in museum contexts, cultural institutions and spaces dedicated to contemporary art, with the possibility of adaptation in relation to the host places and programs. The Association “La Casa degli Artisti” is open to collaborations and dialogues with realities interested in hosting and further developing the project.
Info: “La Casa degli Artisti” / Tel. 346 2206224 / 348 5275776 / lacasadegliartistipg@gmail.com / www.lacasadegliartistiperugia.it