PasoliniPitture Paesaggi Persone

Works, drawings, documents and photographs show a lesser-known Pier Paolo Pasolini: the painter, and his deep bond with the landscape, nature and the people who live in it.

Curated by Daniela Ferrari and Riccardo Maria Balzarotti, the exhibition fills the rooms of the Museum of the Antica Grancia in Serre di Rapolano, a place where the countryside and the farming that shaped it can be felt in every room. It explores Pasolini's work as a painter and the link between landscape and the human figure, a theme that also runs through his writing, films and essays.

The main lender is the Gabinetto Vieusseux in Florence, which holds many of Pasolini's works and his library, with the collaboration of the Giuseppe Zigaina Archive. The catalogue is published by Sillabe.

The exhibition

The library

The exhibition opens with books from Pasolini's library, now at the Gabinetto Vieusseux: a way into his workshop, where reading fed his poetry. On one side his own writings, from Poesie a Casarsa to Scritti corsari; on the other the books of his fellow writers, from Elsa Morante to Alberto Moravia, Giorgio Bassani and Alberto Arbasino.

The landscape table

Books, first editions, photographs and film stills form an ideal work table where writing meets painting, landscape and people. The route starts from rural Casarsa on the Tagliamento, passes the fishing hut at Grado, linked to Giuseppe Zigaina and the shooting of Medea, and reaches Tuscia and the Tower of Chia.

The display tables by studio AOUMM pay tribute to Enzo Mari's tables, on which Pasolini himself used to work.

Images as poems, poems as images

For Pasolini, painting went hand in hand with writing and film throughout his life. He painted on any surface, even cellophane, with tempera, chalk and even sparkling wine. His paintings return to the themes of his poetry: humble houses, animals, the landscapes of Casarsa. The section opens with the profile of Roberto Longhi, the art historian who taught him at university.

(Self-)portraits

Pasolini portrayed friends, intellectuals and chance encounters with strong expressionist force. In his self-portraits, such as Self-portrait with the old scarf (1946), a few brushstrokes are enough for cheekbones, hollow cheeks and shadowed eyes. Next to them hang the faces of Alberto Arbasino, Giuseppe Zigaina, Andrea Zanzotto and the study of Maria Callas's profile.

Pasolini and Zigaina

"Pasolini painted like a poet and made films like a painter", said the painter Giuseppe Zigaina. He took Pasolini to the Grado lagoon and the islet of Mota Safon, where Pasolini drew while his friend photographed him: both the drawings and the photographs are on show. Here, in the summer of 1969, Pasolini shot scenes of Medea and worked on portraits of Maria Callas.

Video

Three films give voice and movement to the exhibition: Pasolini e la forma della città (1974), Pasolini. Il corpo e la voce (2015), from the Rai archives, and 1° Maggio a Cervignano (1953), the only film made by Giuseppe Zigaina.

Omelia contadina (Funeral Homily)

The exhibition ends with Omelia contadina (2020) by Alice Rohrwacher and JR, a cinematic action created on the Alfina plateau: portraits of four local farmers carried in procession and buried, a funeral for peasant culture that echoes Pasolini's thoughts on its disappearance. Presented at the Venice Film Festival in 2020.