A trendy set

An opportunity on the web. First of all, mark this web address: https://fondazioneartea.org/ gallery-video/ This is a link to the site of the ARTEA Foundation, an important reality that operates in the Cuneo area to enhance and promote heritage with a view to social development and cheap. It is based at the ancient Filatoio in Caraglio and precisely to revive the splendor of the ancient textile factory has designed an exhibition dedicated to the vision of a choice of film costumes under the direction of the Cinema Museum.

An exhibition designed to make visitors relive the most authentic soul of Italian cinema, its history, films, stars and protagonists, through 17 stage costumes and 70 evocative set photographs. These elements are intertwined in the visit path and give life to a journey backwards that starts from the silent cinema of the early twentieth century, when Turin was the Italian Hollywood and it was the directors themselves who supervised the costumes, before arriving at sound cinema and golden age of Cinecittà, of the auteur films by Luchino Visconti and Pier Paolo Pasolini and of the Italian comedy, from Dino Risi to Roberto Benigni. The scene photos lead the visitor into the set, discovering the work behind a clapperboard, the accessories and the details that contributed to creating the fortune of the blockbuster Cabiria in the 10's charm of divas such as Claudia Cardinale, Sophia Loren and Silvana Mangano.

At this point, the reader could rightly ask the reason for the aforementioned link and what prompts the writer to tell about an exhibition not yet accessible for well-known reasons. But the reason is soon evident as ARTEA has also organized a virtual tour of the exhibition allowing the viewer to connect from home and visit the exhibition accompanied by the critic Stefano Della Casa who in four 60-minute appointments interacts from the rooms of the Filatoio with various professionals of the cinemas that tell the evolution and nature of the profession in a never banal conversation starting from the work of a costume designer / set designer, a sound engineer, a special effects supervisor and a producer who talks about how to financially design a film.

An interesting way for a visit that only temporarily wants to replace a direct viewing experience but demonstrates how if virtuous cultural institutions have been able to reinvent themselves by reaffirming their function in the social fabric.

Davide Bracco
NP january 2021