30 july 2025   –   Time to read: 5 min

“More than kids”: Valerio Berruti transforms Palazzo Reale into an emotional journey
Palazzo Reale, Milan – July 22 to November 2, 2025

What remains of childhood within each of us? With his new, monumental exhibition More than kids, Valerio Berruti takes us on a journey suspended between memory and future, dream and awareness. From July 22 to November 2, 2025, at Palazzo Reale, visitors will experience an immersive path where they are not just invited to observe, but to feel, cross through, and participate.

Berruti’s works – drawings, frescoes, monumental sculptures, video animations, and installations – go beyond simply representing childhood: they use it as a key to speak to everyone, opening up spaces for reflection on profound themes such as identity, change, and the fragility of our times.

Essential, often silent figures look at us, silently asking: do we recognize ourselves in them?

It begins with a gaze that demands attention

The exhibition opens with a powerful presence in the central courtyard of Palazzo Reale: Don’t let me be wrong, a large aluminum sculpture of a young girl gazing into the distance.

It’s an inhabitable artwork, inside which comes to life an animated short film created with over 800 drawings. The original soundtrack is composed by Daddy G of the iconic Massive Attack. Within, the audience is immersed in a visual and sonic narrative that delicately and powerfully addresses climate change—an invitation to listen, to observe, and above all, not to look away.

Artworks that make you reflect

On the first floor, following a video introducing the artist and his journey, the exhibition begins in a dramatically darkened room. Here we find A Safe Place: a giant girl floats on water, supported by a life ring. In one part of the world, this object is a toy; in another, it is the only chance of survival.

Berruti invites us to reflect on how chance and birthplace can define our lives: “where you are born changes everything.” The piece is accompanied by an original soundtrack by Lucio Disarò, subtly amplifying its emotional depth.

With Nel Silenzio (In the Silence), the artist once again warns against indifference toward climate change. Two girls stand still, like a Pompeii discovery from the future—a poetic, visual warning to believe in science, unlike those who stayed in Pompeii.

A powerful video animation of the demon Lilith, restless in sleep, accompanied by a haunting soundtrack by maestro Rodrigo D’Erasmo, whispers a silent question: Is there still time to change things?

In Three (parts of) me, we encounter three faces, three gazes, three truths. The piece portrays three versions of the same girl, each with a different hairstyle. Inspired by an ancient Japanese legend, it reflects on the identities we inhabit: the public one, the private one, and the hidden one—even from ourselves.

The installation invites viewers to walk around it, to seek what’s visible only from different angles: an exploration of our inner masks.

An army that does not speak

Perhaps the most evocative piece is Nel nome del padre (In the Name of the Father): forty-two identical girls stare at a figure who instead looks away. An image that speaks of ongoing conflicts, of wars—both near and far—that we often choose to ignore.

The girl in the foreground seems to lead this silent army, but she doesn’t command it: she lowers her gaze. The number 42, a reference to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, reminds us that before looking for answers, we should learn to ask the right questions.

In the final room, play becomes poetry. Nina’s Carousel, a monumental sculpture inspired by old fairground rides, moves gently: the public can climb aboard, letting themselves be carried away by the music of Ludovico Einaudi.

Here, the childish gesture becomes an immersive experience, suspended between lightness and contemplation.

Berruti’s sculptures are both delicate and powerful: like wings, like great birds in flight, or like childlike figures watching us from a place that feels strangely familiar—something that already lives within us.

His figures are never finished

In every room, in every work—and we have deliberately left out at least four pieces, as significant as those described here—emotions and reflections emerge: on the duality of good and evil, on the shadow that sometimes seems more real than reality itself, on the value of memory, on the importance of an embrace.

And then there are the video animations, where the drawings come alive to the music of Paolo Conte and Ryūichi Sakamoto.

“His figures are never finished,” writes curator Nicolas Ballario, “because it is the visitor who decides the fate and origin of his subjects.”

More than kids is not just an exhibition: it’s a collective experience, a choral narrative, a love letter to what we once were—and to what we can still become.

 

 

Palazzo Reale, Milan
July 22 – November 2, 2025
Curated by Nicolas Ballario
Under the patronage of the Municipality of Milan – Culture
In collaboration with Arthemisia, Piuma, Fondazione Ferrero
Special partner Lavazza Group | Media partner Sky Arte | Mobility partner Frecciarossa

Visit the artist’s profile:

Valerio Berruti