Pale fire

Thomas Voltan's porject

Academic year

2025 - 2026

When we watch a sunset, we rarely think about the optical conditions that tint the sky. A deeper red, often signals more polluted air; beyond a point, even the colors begin to fade. From this premise comes an inquiry into the area surrounding the petrochemical complex of Sannazzaro de’ Burgondi, an industrial cathedral partly hidden within the quiet countryside of Lomellina. 

In Pale fire, fragments of the sunset sky overlap with the countryside’s muted landscape, where human presence is veiled, revealed only through built structures, sometimes discreet, sometimes unmistakable. A cloud, silent and magnetic, hangs over life. 

 

The Searchlights is the second chapter of Ti vorrei dire, a three-year project developed in collaboration with Gallerie d'Italia - Torino, a part of Intesa Sanpaolo. The projects map out the urgencies of our time through the perspective of a new generation. Ecological and climate crises, dynamics of power and representation, identity, mental health, precarity, memory and narratives of the present run through the works, shaping a collective account that restores complexity to what is too often reduced to a label. 

Curated by: 
Carlotta Cattaneo, Daria Scolamacchia, Giulia Ticozzi 
With teaching support from: 
Luis Aniceto, Francesca Cirilli, Fabio Barile, Diego Fontana, Alessandra Foschi, Simona Taddeucci, Jacopo Loiodice, Céline Volonterio