On the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death, the Galleria Russo in Rome celebrates the greatest playwright of all time with the Shakespeare in Rome exhibition, a contemporary tribute to his genius and the influence he still exerts on languages today artistic.
The exhibition, curated by Maria Cecilia Vilches Riopedre and which makes use of the essay in the catalog by the British journalist and critic Andrew Dickson, is sponsored by the British Council in Italy (the United Kingdom’s international organization for cultural relations) and is part of the scope of the larger Shakespeare Lives project: an annual global program of events and activities to celebrate William Shakespeare’s influence on the 400th anniversary of his death, in collaboration with GREAT Britain campaign partners.
On display the works of seven young artists – Enrico Benetta, Diego Cerero Molina, Roberta Coni, Manuel Felisi, Michael Gambino, Massimo Giannoni and Tommaso Ottieri – who revive William Shakespeare’s works, places, atmospheres and characters through an unedited and original reinterpretation .
Benetta pays homage to The Merchant of Venice with a site-specific installation that enhances the drama of Shakespeare’s writings through the colors of black and red; the ambivalent nature of man, ambition, the subtle difference between good and evil and between life and death are evoked instead in the two works of the artist Diego Cerero Molina, while Roberta Coni presents three portraits depicting the most famous heroines of works by Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth, Juliet and Ophelia.
The mixed media vertigo on canvas by Manuel Felisi is inspired by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in which layers of floral ornaments and letters blend with the final photograph to recreate a romantic and dreamy atmosphere as Michael Gambino plays Shakespeare and his works in his poetic compositions of butterflies and books, adding to the proposals on display an unpublished portrait of the playwright; an unpublished William Shakespeare then appears among the masses of books and volumes of one of the characteristic libraries of Massimo Giannoni; Finally, Tommaso Ottieri is present with two large interiors of the Colon Theater in Buenos Aires, set up with the scenographies of The Tempest and two unpublished compositions inspired by the figures of Lady Macbeth and Yorick.
