Il teatro della vita

The Evolution of Ventura’s Imagination in His Most Recent Works

After exhibitions in Milan, Turin, and Verona, Paolo Ventura’s new solo show, Il teatro della vita (The Theater of Life), arrives in Pietrasanta with a new selection of works. The exhibition presents the artist’s latest cycle, Der Sturm, along with a selection of other works created between 2024 and 2025.

In Der Sturm, Ventura brings to life an intimate and symbolic theater populated by marionettes he created. These figures move within urban or abstract architectures suspended in time, a hallmark of the artist’s work. The images are rich with references to early twentieth-century painting and cinema, giving form to highly poetic narratives that reflect on themes of masks, identity, and memory.

The exhibition also features the artist’s recent production, including the 2024 cycle À bas Guillaume! (Down with Guillaume!), inspired by the poignant story of the missed encounter between Giuseppe Ungaretti and Guillaume Apollinaire in Paris at the end of World War I. These works feature surreal atmospheres and enigmatic characters, often played by Ventura himself, immersed in Parisian settings rich with historical and literary evocations.

Rounding out the exhibition are several photographic collages created in 2025, in which Ventura gives shape to reinvented urban landscapes—cities suspended between dream and reality. These large-format works intertwine painting, photography, and scenic construction, further extending the artist’s visionary poetics.

Il teatro della vita is a visual and narrative journey that confirms Paolo Ventura’s ability to transform imagination into images, maintaining a subtle balance between reality and fiction, memory and invention.