The Theatre of the Dreams from Chagall to Fellini

The Theatre of the Dreams from Chagall to Fellini

Galleria Nazionale dell’ Umbria, Perugia

September 25 2010 - January 9 2011
www.mostrateatrodelsogno.it

by Sara Pelliccia

Drawing inspiration from the title of a book by Guido Almansi “The Book of the Sleep”, Luca Beatrice has curated for the National Gallery of Umbria, in Perugia, an exhibition on the oniric theme in art-a transversal journay which involves various media from painting to cinema illustrating the influence of “The interpretation of the dreams” by Freud on the language of images. Like an ideal stage, the show is animated by the presence of more than 100 masterpieces by some of the leading characters of figurative arts and cinema, from the early 20^th century to Contemporary days. The world of the unconscious and the visionary becomes magically the form of expression of modern man’s irrational thinking and nocturne and secret realm of the dreams the field of investigation of the artists.

“The Theatre of Dreams” opens by showing the early ferments at the end of 20^th century, destined to develop and become more intense with the birth of Surrealism. Along with prominent international names, such as Arnold Bocklin, Paul Klee, Max Klinger, there are the Italians Plinio Nomellini, Gaetano Previati, and Umberto Boccioni who investigate the illusionistic experiences related to dreams. The Dream of Paolo and Francesca by Boccioni inaugurates a series of fanciful images evoking the attitude of the Romantic man to explore the Self in the mysterious environment of night and the obscurity of the myth. By representing the love between Paolo and Francesca in a red cloud suspended above the darkness of hell, Boccioni wants to show the activity of the human mind engaged in the sublimation of the most carnal instincts. The first section of the exhibition is, indeed, an explosion of multi-colored canvas, in which mythological and biblical creatures, enchanting sirens, and sleeping beautiful women dance in the night, just like the most secret human wishes fluctuate in the sea of the mind.

The journey continues with the second section, centered on the most representative images of the Surrealist period. In particular, Chagall with six truly significant and impressive works, manages to catapult the viewer into the dimension of these child-like dreams, where the most instinctual feelings are free to reveal themselves. Like in a sort of fairy-tale, Le Plafond de l’ opera Garnier celebrates the triumph of an irrational world populated by musicians, jugglers, satyrs, dancers, and weird animals. Strong and bright colors portray Chagall’ s utopian environment with a dreamlike simplicity, and the fusion of fantasy, religion, and nostalgia infuse his works with a joyous quality contrasting with the disquieting atmosphere of the paintings by Giorgio De Chirico, Alberto Savinio, Salvator Dalì, Renè Magritte, Jane Mirò, Max Ernst, Paul Delvaux, and Andrè Masson. A series of desolate squares, ancient ruins, timeless landscapes, ghostly figures become metaphors of the other side of the oniric state, that of the nightmare. These canvas seem to be produced by an ill mind, which through images evoking loneliness, desperation, and melancholy, expresses the drammatic psychological condition of the 20^th century man.

What follows is a synthesis of dreams according to the vision offered by some Contemporary artists, through the pictorial experiences of the Italian and international Trans- Avant garde- with prominent figures such as Sandro Chia, Mimmo Paladino, Julian Shnabel- and installations and sculptures by cutting-edge artists, such as Tony Oursler, Jan Fabre, and Pinot Gallizio. The atmosphere of this section is completely different from the previous ones: the viewer is suddenly brought back to the harsh reality. The sculpture The Sleeper by Mimmo Paladino shows a new interpretation of the oniric world: the sleeper is portrayed as a begging naked man whose dreams have been destroyed by cynicism and disentchantment. The exhibition concludes with the last section dedicated to cinema as a form of art, in which dreamlike visions of famous authors have converged. In a very intimate room, Andy Warhol’s Sleep as well as Sam Tylor Woods’ modern David Beckham Sleeping invite the viewer to explore the silent and secret qualities of sleep seen as the keeper of the most precious human illogical thoughts. Symbol- artist of the cinema section is Federico Fellini who, by drawing lymph from his own dreams, gave life to some masterpieces of the history of film-making such as, La Dolce vita, I Clowns, and The City of Women. Significant are also 30 original drawings taken from the film-maker’s “Book of Dreams”, a sort of diary with nocturnal notes.

The “Theater of the Dreams” is nothing else that the visual representation of the complex metaphysic universe of the human being. A mixture of fantastic dreams, where beauty and ugliness, good and evil alternate in the vivacious chromaticism of the paintings, symbolizes the contradictory complexity of the mind. The dimension of the dream as source of inspiration for life and art is amplified by the blue exhibition space and by the light aura surrounding the frames of the canvas. Just like under a starry sky the miracle of the dream takes place, in the same way, the images succeeding one another as fugacious apparitions in the night esemplify the creative action of the unconscious. In the section dedicated to the contemporary artists, the magic of “the irrational” is bound to vanish. The walls become white and empty as though every dream was condemned to lose its visionary power. This exhibition is, indeed, conceived as a celebration of the power of imagination and fantasy as means through which man tries to capture the essence of reality and interpret it.