Rome, October 2025 – At the Press Room of the Chamber of Deputies, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Pier Paolo Pasolini, the new initiative “Pasoliniana: Exhibitions, Theatre and Screenings 50 Years After the Death of Pier Paolo Pasolini” was presented. The project is promoted by the President of the Culture Committee of the Chamber of Deputies in collaboration with Galleria Russo, and aims to offer a rich and intense tribute to Pasolini’s figure—one capable of interpreting the contradictions of modernity and transforming them into poetry and vision.
The initiative is part of PPP Visionario, a program promoted by the Department of Culture of Rome Capital.
Speakers at the event included Hon. Federico Mollicone, President of the Culture Committee of the Chamber of Deputies; artist Nicola Verlato; Fabrizio Russo, Director of Galleria Russo; and art historian Cinzia Virno.
At the conclusion of the conference, attendees had the opportunity to visit the exhibition of Nicola Verlato’s work “Assassinio di P.P.P. / Marlowe” (2016–2022, oil on canvas, 200 × 300 cm), installed in the Sacristy Hall of the Vicolo Valdina complex.
The initiative is structured around four main stages:
• October 27 – November 4: First exhibition at the Sacristy Hall of the Vicolo Valdina complex, Chamber of Deputies. The exhibition will be open to the public, Monday to Friday, from 11:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., with last entry at 7:00 p.m.
• November 5 – 21: Continuation at Galleria Russo Archivi, Via Laurina 12, where additional works by Verlato will be exhibited in a curatorial path highlighting Pier Paolo Pasolini’s poetic world as it emerges through his dialogue with Ezra Pound. A comparison in which two kindred spirits, though divided by differing ideological convictions, meet through literature. The exhibition will be open to the public from Tuesday to Friday, from 10:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
• November 6: At MAXXI, at 6:30 p.m., a filmed version of the theatrical performance “Pasolini/Pound. Odi et amo” by Leonardo Petrillo will be screened. The performance is based on the historic interview given by Pound to Pasolini in 1967 at his home in Calle Querini, Venice. The production was made possible thanks to the Department of Culture and Sport of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region for the project “Pasolini 100” and produced in collaboration with the Teatro Stabile del Friuli Venezia Giulia.
• November 12: At Margutta Vegetarian Food & Art, at 6:30 p.m., a free tribute to the intellectual—one of the greatest of twentieth-century Italy—will take place, featuring readings, theatrical interpretations, and other artistic activities.
Nicola Verlato’s work and vision
Verlato’s idea of representing Pasolini’s death takes shape as a complex and powerful homage. The painting Assassinio di P.P.P. / Marlowe (2016–2022, oil on canvas, 200 × 300 cm) combines expressive force, formal rigor, and symbolic depth. The sculptural solidity of the bodies, with clear Michelangelesque references, merges with the scenic construction and the cultural and emotional references of Pasolini’s universe.
The work stages the death of Pier Paolo Pasolini through a symbolic dialogue with the figure of Christopher Marlowe. Pasolini is depicted in the guise of the Elizabethan playwright, killed by a friend in an inn while awaiting trial for blasphemy. The reference to Marlowe stems from the identification Pasolini himself made with the English poet, as recalled by his childhood friend Giuseppe Zigaina.
The monumental painting blends Mannerist and Baroque elements and establishes a correspondence between two specular figures—Pasolini and Marlowe—poets and secular martyrs, celebrated at the moment of their sacrifice. By transposing Pasolini’s murder into another era and a different mode of execution, the artist underscores its mythical dimension and universal significance: “I want to represent the moment when things shift from one plane of existence to another, the mythological one,” explains Verlato.
In the painting, Pasolini and Marlowe experience two parallel sacrifices that mirror and amplify one another, like heroes of a Renaissance humanism. The scene suspends time, leading into an atemporal space that belongs to eternity. It is here that art and life meet, on the boundary between myth and reality, restoring a buried civilization that, through art, returns to question the present.
