An entire exhibition on witchcraft at the Villa Reale in Monza. And on Halloween comes the Addams Family

Villa Reale in Monza presents from October 29, 2022 to February 26, 2023 the exhibition Stregherie. Facts, Scandals and Truths about the Subversives of History, curated by Luca Scarlini and organized by Vertigo Syndrome. A history old and new of witches, amid ancient knowledge, hidden ceremonies, sacredness and eroticism, to tell a figure of women removed from culture and life.

Visitors will begin the exhibition by personally experiencing a real witchcraft trial held by a medieval court in 1539. He or she will subsequently be invited to enter the world of the Ancient Religion of the Great Mother, experiencing its places, rituals, actions and objects in a path that will unfold through ten rooms characterized by mythological tradition up to the definition of the figure in modern times. Along the corridor of the exhibition itinerary, reminiscent of the asphyxiating and terrifying environments of Dario Argento’s film Suspiria, as if inside the stage of a theater, ten rooms open up, each intended to stage a different aspect of the witch’s life. Heartbreaking voices, whispers and cries evoke ancient rituals, and the words of Magdalena Barile, a well-known playwright, give voice to the witches themselves.

In the first room, a selection of images from the classical world gives voice to the wise woman of ancient times, the model for today’s witches. The voice of antiquity narrates her own rituals and prophesies the future, drawing a tradition of ancient mothers, evoking those of later times. The second focuses on how and why one becomes a witch: to escape the beatings of a maniacal husband, out of self-dissatisfaction, erotic voluptuousness, hatred of one’s enemies, because attracted to the moon or the power of plants. The voice of the witch defines herself, finding a way to escape her unhappy condition by acquiring power. Witch rituals are recounted in the third room: witches use nature to assert their power; they know how to derive tools from herbs for their own assertion. The narrative focuses on the ritual of summoning forces outside the world of humans. The word becomes a tool of action on the world, to manipulate and change it. The fourth stanza is devoted to the theme of how and how much the world seeks the witch, who is always denigrated and attacked in public. The rich seek the support of the woman of wisdom, secretly turning to her to read the future or to seek or maintain their own pomp. The witch tells the vision, ironically, of her power in the human imagination. The witch, with gestures and words, spells and rituals, can dominate the world, exert dominion over her own will. The narrative of the fifth room thus focuses on the first time the witch exercises ritual and sees the manifestation of her power in the lives of others, exerting an action of manipulation of reality.

Beginning with the dark images of Goya’s Capricci, a description of the witch as a fanatic of the game of destinies, a creature of bizarreness and mutation, holding as a model the classical paradigm of Maga Mago in The Sword in the Stone, who states that the thing she loves most is play, chance, whim; this is the theme of the sixth. We then move to the witch’s account of her fear of being discovered, tortured, forced to reveal her own secrets and those of her sisters of the night. The judge, the priest, the lord of the village, the humanist haunted by dark presences, the monarch fearful of witches, are all figures in her persecution. The eighth stanza gives voice to Matta Tapina, the witch of the Monza woods, who cast her spells and was sought out by the townspeople for magical succor, right where the park of the Villa Reale in Monza now stands. La Matta Tapina tells of her worldview, the people who defy the fear of the forest to seek her help, the persecution of power. The Sabbath is the witch’s magical moment, her affirmation, the sharing of power with her community. The witch recounts the excitement before departing from her own miserable life, for the place of desire and the arrival at the place of celebration, in meeting the black lord and his legions of creatures of the night.

The last section is separate and contains six original unpublished illustrations by artist Gloria Pizzilli. With a style somewhere between French burlesque and the women of Klimt, her witches are terrifying, naked and beautiful, with curves that look like hugs, but with an atrocity so palpable and aggressive that a closed section was requested so as not to offend the sensibilities of less prepared visitors. Gloria Pizzilli’s unpublished works will be published in a small volume edited by Vertigo Syndrome and in six signed art prints sold in limited editions exclusively in the exhibition bookshop.

Younger visitors will be involved in games and adventures within the exhibition itinerary at the end of which they will receive a free “bewitched” prize and have at their disposal a small witch’s lair where they can prepare amulets and magic potions with spiders, snakes and other mysterious materials.

Also, on the occasion of Halloween, from Saturday, Oct. 29 to Tuesday, Nov. 1, the Royal Villa becomes the home of the Addams Family. Welcoming visitors will be the characters of the Addams Family, played by actors, musicians, and dancers from Musicamorfosi, who will enliven the Villa’s Halls and Apartments with exhibitions and performances. On Tuesday, Nov. 1, accompanying the performances of the Addams Family will be a series of special performance animation workshops held in collaboration with the Fondazione Civica Scuola di Musica e Danza di Desio.

For all info visit https://reggiadimonza.it/ and https://stregherie.it/

An entire exhibition on witchcraft at the Villa Reale in Monza. And on Halloween comes the Addams Family

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