At the Labyrinth of the Masone an exhibition to learn about the history of one of the oldest symbols: the labyrinth

Opening on May 22, 2021 at the Labirinto della Masone in Fontanellato (Parma), the exhibition Umberto Eco, Franco Maria Ricci. Labyrinths. Storia di un segno, a multimedia journey to discover a universal sign, the labyrinth, which can be visited until September 26, 2021.

The Labyrinth of the Masone will be transformed into a metal maze, thanks to innovative multimedia installations by NEO (Narrative Environments Operas), a research and design studio of narrative environments. Visitors will be immersed in a journey of words and thoughts, amid scenic and digital installations and important loans, to discover the history and meaning of one of the world’s oldest symbols.

The exhibition will take place in three rooms, where the public will be guided by figures linked to Franco Maria Ricci, such as Umberto Eco and Jorge Luis Borges. The first room will be dedicated to Umberto Eco: here the voice and words of the great writer will accompany visitors through a labyrinth of mirrors in which the history of the labyrinth will be reread from a symbolic and psychological point of view.

In the second room, works of art will tell the historical development of labyrinths in a360-degree multimedia exhibition; the third room will display fascinating and mysterious paintings thanks to important loans, such as the 16th-century Portrait of Bartolomeo Prati by Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli and various printed and illuminated works from the Renaissance to the present: ancient volumes illustrated with labyrinths, such as Lelio Pittoni’s codex preserved at the Library of Florence, or the volume Carceri d’invenzione, with intaglio prints by Giovan Battista Piranesi, Skira’s Minotaure magazine.

In the fourth and final room, a selection of contemporary Giovanni Soccol ’s works from the Labirinti series will lead visitors through evocative and symbolic scenarios for a truly emotional investigation.

A guide-catalogue of the exhibited works by Soccol together with the volume Labirinti, entirely edited by Franco Maria Ricci and published with Rizzoli (updated reprint of the 2013 version), with a preface by Umberto Eco, text by Giovanni Mariotti, will accompany the visitor to discover the history of labyrinths; in addition, the mythological dictionary edited by Luisa Biondetti useful for delving into the part of the myth related to Greek culture.

The exhibition is organized under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture, the Emilia-Romagna Region, the Municipality of Fontanellato, and the Municipality of Parma, and the installations are by Neo Tech.

Image: Lelio Pittoni, Labirinti multiviari (1611)

At the Labyrinth of the Masone an exhibition to learn about the history of one of the oldest symbols: the labyrinth

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