In Milan, ten new, site-specific works by Mario Ceroli dialogue with the underground space of Palazzo Citterio

Until March 23, 2025 Palazzo Citterio in Milan hosts the exhibition Mario Ceroli. La forza di sognare ancora, curated by Cesare Biasini Selvaggi. Presented here for the occasion are ten previously unseen, site-specific works created in the last year by the artist, designed to dialogue with the hypogeal space designed by James Stirling in the 1980s. An unprecedented journey through ten installation-sculptures conceived as a single environment, but autonomous and interactive. These include My Life (2024), an arrhythmic sequence of 28 wooden elements, evoking the flow of time and memory; Mare Nostrum (2024) and The Boat of Charon (2023), works that interweave mythological references and ecological themes, in a dialogue between Mediterranean classicism and contemporaneity; Venice (2024), a massive installation of 62 pine trunks, a tribute to the lagoon city and its extraordinary artisanal engineering; Let’s Not Ruin the Earth (2024), an invitation to reflect on the fragility of the planet, with materials that evoke the transformations of nature. Conceived as acts of a personal “Theater of Exhibitions,” these works propose open systems of interaction, with the intention of inviting the public into direct dialogue.

Among the most innovative artists of his generation, Mario Ceroli has created works that blend poetry, social criticism and material experimentation. His creations, inspired as much by tradition as by the avant-garde, emerge in a unique tension between the Baroque imagery of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and the spatial visions of Lucio Fontana. Ceroli invites us to dream again, interweaving rationality and imaginative beauty. Mario Ceroli continues to explore the relationship between humanity and nature, favoring wood as a material and fusing different artistic languages. From Land Art to Body Art, his research focuses on respect for biodiversity, overcoming anthropocentrism and valuing the intelligence that permeates the natural world.

Ceroli’s works, the curator explains, represent the hope for change and the aspiration for a new civic consciousness, shaping a beauty that resonates with the “infinite wondrous forms of nature” described by Charles Darwin.

Accompanying the exhibition is a publication published by Metilene Edizioni that includes a comprehensive overview of the works on display, and essays by Angelo Crespi, Cristina Mazzantini, Cesare Biasini Selvaggi and Mario Ceroli himself. The catalog is sponsored by Banca Ifis.

The exhibition inaugurates an important collaboration between Grande Brera and the National Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rome. After Milan, the exhibition will arrive in Rome in April 2025, enriched by a selection of works tracing the artist’s career. This project has been realized thanks to the support of Ifis art, an initiative of Banca Ifis for the enhancement of contemporary art.

In Milan, ten new, site-specific works by Mario Ceroli dialogue with the underground space of Palazzo Citterio

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