The display areas of Palazzo Taverna host the exhibition Illusions and Marvels. The Unusual Belgian Poetry, arranged bythe Emmeotto Gallery in collaboration with the Galerie Antonio Nardone in Brussels.This group show is dedicated to a selection of Belgian artists, whose works are also featured in the important exhibition Wunderkammer. A Contemporary Cabinet of Wonder, which has recently met with great success at the Venice Biennial and will be hosted by the Academia Belgica in Rome until January 29th 2014.

The artists featured in Wunderkammer draw their inspiration from the bizarre and unusual items (be they created by Man or by Nature) that graced many 16th to 18th century collections, reinterpreting them with a contemporary approach. The four artists selected for the exhibition hosted by the Emmeotto Gallery, instead, instil life into the marvel that guides the observer throughout a world suspended between artifice and truth, illusion and reality, appearances and discovery.

The illusion of the eye is the guide that orients the visitor throughout the exhibition, between imagination and astonishment, between what the eye seems to perceive at first look and what careful observation reveals. An exploratory journey, ranging from the spider webs portrayed by Pascal Bernier, who investigates the conditions underlying the perception and the realisation of images and encourages us to discover a universe where nature is reinterpreted by man, to the photographs by Jean-Luc Moerman, who covers his own subjects and those of ancient paintings with tattoos, drawing his inspiration from the world of graffiti, fashion and advertising; from the totemic sculptures by Bénédicte van Caloen, who builds a dialogue between figure and space putting the emphasis on the absolute truth and uniqueness of the subject, to the “Arcimboldesque” compositions by Patrick van Roy, where photography, which is supposed to faithfully represent reality, actually reveals the ambiguity intrinsic to its own function when confronted with totally fake and reassembled images.

The unusual Belgian poetry is irreverent, sarcastic, caustic, but also free from conventions, thus allowing artists to add their own personal and original touch to the art that they themselves create.

November 29th 2013 – January 18th 2014