Emptiness, silence, but above all, pitch black. The scene has gone dark, making it impossible to make anything out. Two screens are connected to two infrared cameras which move like eyes, and their gaze guides the spectator through the darkness, following the actor’s every move. The cameras try to make Read More
On a weather map, a small cross-shaped cursor moves and marks out the desired position. With great assuredness, it points out paths and trajectories through places, seas, forests, deserts and cities. Suddenly, this winged cross that appears to have the shape of an Icarus, spreads its wax wings and slips Read More
Made of images that shape each other in a game of reflections, Reflecting bodies is a very simple installation about stonemasonry where technology is very little used. Ten monitors are arranged in pairs at an angle of ninety degrees, so that the screens are reflected in each other to form Read More
A section of an electronic sky has plummeted to the ground, trapping the image of a dove in the glossy reflection of the floor. It is suspended above the visitors’ heads. Up above, in the monitor, the “upside down” gaze of a weather satellite travels and investigates the surface of Read More
Two screens provide two simultaneous points of view, focusing on this episode taken from Homer’s epic. At times, the images work together in the same way that human eyes allow us to see, and at other times, they are different from each other and mix up, just like human thought. Read More
From the Observations on nature series (‘Osservazioni sulla natura’), this installation, despite its artificiality, was also approached as if it were a natural phenomenon. A large wedge seems to have risen up from underground, splitting up the line of monitors. It is a composite mass that becomes disturbing when luminous Read More
Everything works in harmony like an orchestra, everyone has their part […] but there will always be an off-key note. The passage from this “symphony” is meaningful: every morning, a few minutes before eight o’clock, a car with a big engine speeds around a country road confidently cutting the corner. Read More
A ring of television monitors rises up from beneath the ground. The structure is unusual and could belong to the past or the future. The show begins as this structure appears, with the image of a huddled body immediately displayed, sliding along the curve of screens until the ring disappears Read More
The abstract room is a mental space. It is the interior of the everyman who, for a moment of suspended time, is overcome by sensations, obsessions, memories and images. In this timeless room, the actors interpret the idea of conscience and play out imaginary or experienced relationships that are exaggerated Read More
In the pitch black of the halls of the ex-convent of Santa Scolastica, a number of light beams inspect the harsh surfaces of the building. They seem to be searching for something, or perhaps they are trying to bring something to life with the intensity of their light. Rows of Read More
May 11, 1946. Evening. Arturo Toscanini steps up the podium to conduct the reopening concert of the restored Scala Theatre. The whole event is rendered by the fragmented image from the screens of the video wall created by Studio Azzurro. On the night of August 16, 1943, bombing raids began Read More
This installation is built around synchronized moving lights and videos. The shafts of light try to bring the figures and painted scenarios of Mariano Fortuny’s entirely frescoed Venetian atelier to life, like an illusionistic trompe l’oeil painting. Several people collaborated on this project during a workshop in Venice and just Read More
Seven actors and fifteen monitors are on stage. Their choreography and the scenes they act out are processed using the technological possibilities of video. The live images on the screens are parts of another show that is being performed at the same time on other off-stage sets. Real and simulated Read More
A wall that’s about 150 metres long and 2 metres high encloses the exterior of the ex-criminal asylum in Volterra. Its surface is entirely engraved with a vast narrative made up of words and drawings, tables and orbital diagrams. For twelve years Nanof has lived behind this wall, scratching at Read More
A video narrative comes to life on twelve TV screens placed in a semicircle in a hall at Palazzo Fortuny in Venice. The screens are connected to another twelve video cameras placed around the city. The white and black footage on the screens overlaps with other images in colour. The Read More
The sense of constant acceleration that has come to define this period seems to suggest that only the movement can be perceived, and not the cause. With this in mind, the idea was to experiment with a trap: not knowing what could happen, a rope is stretched taut across the Read More
Thirty-two TV screens, tall enough to create a barrier, withhold and muddle up memories, presenting sights and sounds of things past or future. The screens, which have been placed at angles, seem to create folds that form part of a larger swaying electronic fabric. Footage shows various symbioses of potential Read More
Milan: a large PVC plastic pyramid covers the entire space of the courtyard in front of the Palazzo del Senato. The structure is supported by eleven thousand cubic metres of hot air. Inside it, there are a few monitors, arranged like another upside down pyramid, reassembling the image of a Read More
A worn-out Lou Reed record, snippets of film and words that run across the screen that are then wiped clear: traces of D. Sounds and visuals collected and reordered recreate a simulated portrait that doesn’t necessarily look like the original but which tries to not lose its poetic charge and Read More
The old pond, oh! A frog leaps in That watery sound. Like a haiku (a traditional form of Japanese poetry), the first video environment is created. A number of videos have been placed in semi-darkness and lights bordering the space light up on the objects on show, objects that these Read More
Filmed in the space of a few hours at a party held in Milan in 1979, the film offers an insight into what it is like being young, lost and looking for promises of a better future. These young people are about to enter into a new decade in pursuit Read More
Sounds, images, colours, tastes. Everything in his extraordinary mind is transformed into a world where there is no boundary between reality and image. First violinist in the orchestra of a big city, ‘S’ is gifted with an extraordinary memory which enables them to remember every single detail of everything that Read More
As anyone who has been there knows, Volterra is a magical town. Each layer of its history is full of little tricks. The still shadow of the sundial stands out against a revolving world, following the outline of the Roman theatre. The imposing Basilica di San Giusto sways so that Read More
Everything seems quiet. The visitor is surrounded by blue light and enchanting music. A line of monitors placed close to each other show the repeated and strained strokes of a swimmer as they swim tirelessly from screen to screen. This installation was created by placing twelve cameras right on the Read More
The sound of lutes and cymbals from a faraway time accompanies the first steps of the visitor walking toward the second order of the Colosseum to enjoy its extraordinary view, looking out on the Arch of Constaintine, the columns of the Temple of Venus, and Rome. The history of this Read More
«Musician», «Architect and General Engineer», map-maker, and painter. Because of his studies and of the machines he designed, Leonardo is sometimes defined less as an artist than as a «scientist». Sometimes he is considered as the truest embodiment of the Renaissance man, with the fickleness that we recognize as such Read More
Staged by Studio Azzurro from an idea of the students of the Memory Journeys We are coming closer to the centenary of the Great Crisis of 1929, of the Germaan laws about eugenic spaying (1933), and of the Italian Racial Laws (1938). After about four generations, direct transmission of these Read More
I am tired, as if I too belonged to the family of statues and were just as old. Yannis Ritsos Offered by Studio Azzurro and Moni Ovadia for the first time in 1990, DELPHI, a cantata stages Yannis Ritsos’ short poem Delphi featuring an original score by di Piero Read More
The multimedia museum was created in the space of a former mechanical workshop inside the Mining Park-Museum at Abbadia San Salvatore. Mine, Cinnabar, Mercury, Amiata: these words, which are placed at the beginning of the path, enclose a network of stories connected to the narrow passages in the mountain. They Read More
This museum is dedicated to the cult of Archangel Michael and it was designed as an initiation journey that draws the visitor to the mysteries coming from the ancient tradition of pilgrimage to the sacred sites bound to the Archangel Michael. A sequence of environments progressively introduces the audience to Read More
As the first core of the museum dedicated to the Visconti family, this environment among the restored walls of Belgioioso Castle features two main moments. The installations – a well and two windows – intrigue the visitor through landscapes and stories about the castle emerging from the past, and being Read More
The Multimedia Museum for Earthquake Memory is dedicated to the memory of the victims of the earthquake that took place in Molise on October 31, 2002, and to the children who lost their lives in it. This project aims at informing people about biodiversity and landscape through experiential, creative, and Read More
This work is a new leg of the Mediterranean project started in 2000, in which Studio Azzurro already took part in 2002 with an installation in Naples, and in 2010 with a work in Genoa. The exhibition includes three sections: a design part, which shows the formation of thought through Read More
MATER, Archaeological and Land Museum, develops in a multimedia and interactive path over three thematic rooms. The first room is dedicated to the history of the Mamoiada area, to its geography and its invisible dimension, i.e., to the hidden, unknown aspects of a land that welcomed different peoples. The room Read More
In the Eastern cell of the Capitolium, inside the Archaeological Park in Brescia, Studio Azzurro created a multimedia environment with strong theatrical reminiscences. An animated model is the main attraction at the centre of the room. Thanks to its interactive margins, it introduces the visitor to the knowledge and the Read More
The MAST Foundation is an international philanthropic and cultural institution dealing with art, technology and innovation. Studio Azzurro created four video installations in its exhibition path. The first environment welcomes the visitors by presenting MAST core topics. A row of wide screens creates a wall of images and moving objects, Read More
Many craftsmen at work have been filmed during the research trips made by Studio Azzurro to create the installations of the Mediterranean Meditations cycle. Bowmakers, fishermen, saddlers, casters, glassmakers, chisellers, potters, weavers, olive pickers, winemakers, boat builders, restorers, bookbinders, blacksmiths, tanners, doll makers: all of them filmed in their workplaces, Read More
In a game of shadows and projections, Pinocchio turns into an immersive fairy tale, a multimedia journey taking the protagonist from puppet to flesh and blood child. Visitors are directly involved in this metamorphosis in a story full of sounds and events. As it moves along a corridor, the shadow Read More
Over 30 years after the Basaglia Law, mental health services in Italy are now widely integrated into the National Health System. On the ground floor of the complex of Santa Maria della Pietà, a former psychiatric hospital, the path of the Museum-Laboratory of the Mind, designed by Studio Azzurro in Read More
Studio Azzurro decided to use shoes to tell a story at the International Shoe Museum in Vigevano. This story begins with the slipper, the most representative shoe model of the area. According to popular knowledge, this shoe was worn, or maybe even created, by Beatrice d’Este, Duchess of Milan and Read More
Studio Azzurro accepted the challenge coming from MEMUS, the Museum and Historical Archive from Naples’ San Carlo Theatre, thus revisiting and reinterpreting six operas staged for theatre by as many world-famous contemporary artists. This multimedia exhibition recounts a story and places the visitor in an original, immersive situation where s/he Read More
Valentia Sensibile is a project aiming at creating appreciation for the area of Vibo Valentia, as well as a promotion of its cultural identity. Its goal is to tell the memory of places while connecting people, art, and multimedia. Studio Azzurro designed and created The Tales of the Horizons and Read More
Over six hundred pottery works are on display at the museum in Mondovì, while further two thousand items are archived in its storage rooms. In the nineteenth century and in the first half of the twentieth, the industrial production of pottery was a strong feature of the culture and economy Read More
Museo dell’Acqua tells the story of Siena through the fascinating hidden world of the “bottini”, an underground system designed to carry water to the city’s historical fountains. In order to explain why Siena is structured this way and why its relationship with water is of the essence, we used the Read More
In 2010, Studio Azzurro took once again part in a leg of the previously started project (2000) about the Mediterranean, this time with a sensitive environment for Palazzo Ducale, in Genoa. The space is transformed by showing faraway scenarios that evoke the origins of Mediterranean peoples, the genesis and the Read More
Red indicates eroticism, love, anger, but also the blood of war, the cloak of power, and the flames of hell. The strongest emotions of man have been associated with this colour, for it is the colour of heat and blood. But there is not just one red: purple, carmine, cardinal, Read More
Franco Basaglia’s work and the utopia that was fulfilled as mental hospitals were shut down are key historical facts that can appeal to younger generations. In Trieste, Basaglia’s heritage generated events and shaped a net of health services. This bears witness to the contemporary relevance of the events of the Read More
The Mind’s Museum and Workshop is located among the walls of the former mental hospital of Santa Maria della Pietà, in Rome. It offers a journey into mental illness and into the segregation it used to cause by going over the history of Rome mental hospital from its foundation to Read More
An important renovation and reorganization work of the exhibition rooms of the Museum of Carrara Marble took place in 2008. Besides artwork, archaeological findings from the quarry, and tools for the extraction and processing of marble, a new multimedia narrative path was born to highlight the city’s historical memory. “We Read More
The Fortress of Emotions aims at preserving the heritage of the World War I memories kept within the walls of Forte Belvedere Gschwent. The path includes three sensitive environments: The Animated Model, The Sentries, and The Howitzers of Sounds. Through a simple gesture, The Animated Model allows you to retrieve Read More
The Charting Table represents the territory of the province of Rimini, and makes it possible for the audience to explore it interactively. Its navigation brings out one of the elements that distinguish these areas, i.e., the cinematographic imagination in its connection to places and people. Works by great authors from Read More
If you wait, sooner or later you’ll believe you are waiting for someone. Samuel Beckett Three hundred deckchairs are arranged at the centre of the large square of Fabbrica del Vapore, facing the “cathedral”, a long early twentieth-century industrial archaeology building. People take their seats a few minutes before Read More
The path on the Maritime Alps inside Forte di Vinadio is less to contemplate than to live. Spaces become narrative, containers of collective experiences in which tales proceed on more levels: the educational and teaching component of the museum mingles with the evocative and emotional one, universal history and personal Read More
The museum of Formigine Castle is not just about architectural appreciation. Thanks to multimedia installations, it turns into a living entity that comes back to life through the layering of stories and emotions. Each time someone visits the castle, new identities of it are shaped, making it a living and Read More
The aim of this exhibition is taking the visitor for a stroll among the houses, palaces, churches, streets, and countryside of medieval Europe through one city: Parma. Set in the Voltoni del Guazzatoio of Palazzo della Pilotta, this path illustrates the economic and political life of Parma, the transformation of Read More
This exhibition highlights figurative culture in the Duchy of Savoy, revealing its patrons, artists, the paths of devotion, and aspects of everyday life. Over three hundred works illustrate the artistic flourishing from the Late Gothic period to early Renaissance: painting on wood, illuminated manuscripts, precious jewellery, skilful carving. These masterpieces Read More
This exhibition stemmed from the idea of enhancing and sharing the rich cartographic heritage preserved at Turin’s State Archives. The enormous maps on display recount the intense activity of portrayal of the territory that took place in the eighteenth century in the Kingdom of Sardinia. Six rooms from the archive Read More
The multimedia museum of Pozzo Gal mine is dedicated to the men who worked here in the first half of the twentieth century, to their families and their histories. It includes testimonies and objects donated to the museum, which represent the most personal and intimate belongings from the miners. The Read More
The exhibition path at Fabbrica della ruota (Wheel Works), a former wool mill now turned museum, is a part of the eco-museum of the Italian province of Biella and the site for the Textile Industry Documentation Centre. It was born on the occasion of an exhibition called On the Woollen Read More
Commissioned for the election of Genoa as European Cultural Capital, this exhibition was designed as a movie developing within the spaces of the Galata Sea Museum in order to bring the extraordinary history of ocean liners back to life. A movie in three stages that becomes a scenario, a narration, Read More
This exhibition celebrates the twentieth anniversary of Domenicale, the cultural section of the Italian newspaper Il sole 24 Ore, in the rooms of Palazzo Te in Mantua. The Renaissance residence of Frederick II Gonzaga has a strong symbolic value, for it is a villa dedicated to spare time, culture, dialogue, Read More
Stemming from international research conducted by Ezio Manzini and François Jégou, this exhibition reflects on the possible answers to questions about sustainable society. The temporary path focuses on the future of living and on different ways of living that are opening up new possibilities and raising new questions. Visitors are Read More
Designed for the museum dedicated to Alfredo d’Andrade, an architect and restorer from the late nineteenth century, this exhibition includes four installations exploring the themes of restoration, archiving, travelling, and the relationships between d’Andrade and his contemporaries. The first installation is made of four interactive bookrests, each equipped with a Read More
Rock Songs Triptych is a composition by Giovanni Sollima for a string orchestra and a choir, dedicated to the Dolomites and to mountain culture. Triptych of Songs, a video opera that blends with musical composition, was projected onto three large screens behind the orchestra, in synch with the score, thus Read More
The permanent collection of Museo di Roma in Trastevere shows popular everyday life in Rome between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, filtering it through the eyes of the artists that represented it. It includes collections of paintings, prints, drawings and watercolours that are displayed in rotation. In a room of Read More
Moving clouds appear in a maze of glass as evanescent and constantly changing interweaving vapours. Visitors move among transparent walls and transform images as they puff on them, giving life and unleashing figures – clouds cut into silhouettes – accompanied by equally unstable sounds. The public activates a metamorphosis of Read More
This museum in Fosdinovo was created in order to offer a new vision of the Resistenza (Italian wartime resistance movement), and in particular to approach a younger audience. We chose to speak an emotional language that does not only tell a story, but also conveys memory by using large-scale projections Read More
As the first museum experience for Studio Azzurro, Lucca’s virtual museum explores the memory of the city through a journey in four stages that match four corresponding moments in memory, i.e., evoking, narrating, informing, and documenting. The introductory hall features footage from cameras scattered around the city that show the Read More
A “naked ape”: according to Desmond Morris’s definition, human beings retain their ancestors’ fur almost exclusively in one place, i.e., their heads. Despite being equipped with a natural covering of the head, man felt the need to double it with an artificial headgear, i.e., the hat. The exhibition space is Read More
Fragments from Ejzenstejn’s movie and footage from a concert performance of Prokofiev’s cantata alternate in an edited video in which they finally intermingle thanks to video processing: the protagonists of the film and those of the performance end up side by side in the same image. Ejzenstejn and Prokofiev worked Read More
This exhibition talks about the body and its transformations between the early twentieth century and the 1980s. The body-food relationship and its symbols are explored through a plurality of languages that respond to a complex theme and generate strong emotional involvement. The path includes six thematic areas, each consisting of Read More
The story that inspired this show is a part of the Racing Stories project and takes place in a thick bamboo scenery that in a wonderful, disturbing way, imprisons images without ever giving them entirely back. The stage is crossed by a luminous sign, a long path of horizontal monitors Read More
Four elements: fire, air, water, and light. Each is represented by a column formed by four screens. They act as hourglasses carrying images from video to video, turning them into something else at every step. The fire turns into a thin burning line, and the line coincides with a red Read More
This work stems from a workshop commissioned by Palazzo Fortuny and entitled Photos with Video Disturbances. Its challenge was seeing how the narrative value of photography could be increased by the insertion of video elements, that is, how the moving image could record traces of a story on those already Read More