Suspended in motion,
with the charge of devotion
to a balance of none,
a support made of little.
In this falling of saints and of giants,
helpless they stand
before days set in silence.
There is no descent that does not come in stages,
doubt is the teacher
no father engages.
And knowing that truth is residing in form,
than error as well
has its own kind of norm.
Closing and striking a supine last note,
what remains is the tying
that cradles and coats.
The rhyme written by Guglielmo Castelli accompanies and guides the imagery of “Sospeso nel moto con addebito di vuoto”.
Within its verses, some of the tension that run through the project already appear: suspension, falling, uncertainty,
and the possibility that even error might find its own form.
Inside the church of San Carlo, the work takes shape as an environment crossed by sound, movement, and image.
The space is not conceived as a simple frame, but as a condition that is defined by what moves through.
The scene originates from a large limbo that rises from the floor until it becomes a continuous backdrop: a surface that
guides the gaze and accompanies movement. Its form derives from the idea of bodies in free fall. The painted silhouettes
appear to have been shaken and pushed downward, as if sliding along the plane of the stage. Above this horizon, moving
skies are arranged, inspired by the devices of the Baroque theatre - cloths, wings, and light scenic apparatuses -
that suggest depth and transformation without constructing a true perspectival illusion.
Guglielmo Castelli’s painting expands into space and becomes an integral part of the scene. His fragile and suspended
figures - bodies, fragments, and allusive presences - seem to emerge from and dissolve into the pictorial field. In this project,
the images also recall the Baroque iconographic tradition of the fall of the giants: bodies that plunge, slip, and lose their
balance, as if space itself were crossed by a continuous downward movement.
The installation is activated on the opening day through a performative intervention entrusted to a string trio and a chorus
of performers. The performers inhabit the space as sonic and physical presences: they appear and withdraw from view, hide
among the architectures and images, and emerge like a chorus or a distant echo. The singing moves through the space
drawing from the tradition of the madrigal and gradually opens toward more rarefied fragments, eventually touching
the horizon of contemporary music - in an ideal passage that extends as far as John Cage.
Beyond this moment of activation, the work continues to live on as a large, walk-through installation. The audience
can enter the space, moving among the images and architectural elements of the scene. “Sospeso nel moto
con addebito di vuoto” thus takes shape as a spatial composition balanced between image, sound, and movement,
where the stage is no longer a place to be observed frontally, but a space to be explored and discovered.
GUGLIELMO CASTELLI
Guglielmo Castelli (Turin, 1987) paints worlds on the verge of dissolving or taking shape.
His figures emerge from liquid fields of color and fade into sudden transparencies, moving across the canvas as though it were a threshold rather than a stable surface.
Immersed in elusive scenographies, his characters seem to traverse states of mind rather than spaces, emotional thresholds rather than environments. Through a fluid, vibrant and unpredictable painterly language, marked by a soft stratifications alternating with sudden densifications, Castelli creates suspended images in which identity remains unstable and space becomes a field of tension between presence and absence.
He has presented solo projects at institutions including: Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2026); Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli, Turin (2025); Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Venice (2024); Villa Medici, Rome (2024); Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado (2023); The Cabin, Los Angeles (2020); Fondazione Coppola, Vicenza (2019); Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2018); MACRO - Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma (2014).
His work has also been featured in group exhibitions at: Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo | Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile, Turin (2025); GAM - Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin (2025, 2020); Fondazione Nicola Trussardi | Palazzo Morando, Milan (2025); Centre Pompidou-Metz, in collaboration with the Musée du Louvre, Metz | Paris (2025); MAXXI L’Aquila, L’Aquila (2023); Triennale Milano, Milan (2023); OGR Torino, Turin (2023); Green Family Art Foundation, Dallas (2023); Tokonoma, Kassel (2022); Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome (2020); Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (2018); PS120, Berlin (2018); Biennale Internationale d’Art Contemporain de Melle, Nelle (2018); The Parkview Museum, Singapore (2018); Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain - Saint Étienne Métropole; Saint-Priest-en-Jarez (2016); MAC - Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Lissone (2016); Palazzo Ardessi | FuturDome, Milan (2016); The Schaufler Foundation - Schauwerk, Sindelfingen; Stadtgalerie Kiel, Kiel; Palazzo della Penna, Perugia (2014).
FABIO CHERSTICH
Fabio Cherstich is a theatre and opera director and set designer.
His work brings together meticulous visual composition and a strong passion for visual languages.
He has worked in numerous Italian and international theaters, including the Teatro Marinsky in Saint Petersburg, the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Opera d’Avignon, Opera de Marseilles, Theatre Maillon, Teatro Argentina, I Teatri di Reggio Emilia, and he is an associated artist of the Fondazione Hydn in Bolzano.
His productions have been invited to major international festivals, including the Festival d’Avignon, Festival di Napoli, Festival Premiere, stuck Contemporary Art Center - Leuven, and the Festival Dei Due Mondi.
He conceived and directed the traveling opera project “Opera-Camion”, described by The New York Times as “a unique project capable of bringing opera back to its origins.”
As a director of performative events for fashion and design, he has collaborated with Cassina, Gufram, Memphis Milano, Fay, Hermès, Off-White and Miu Miu.
