Play as ritual, language and possibility of encounter. With this idea takes shape in Milan the exhibition LUDI - Art is an Embrace, the project that unites two protagonists of the Italian art scene, Fulvio Morella (Grosio, 1971) and Franco Mazzucchelli (Milan, 1939), under the sign of inclusion. The exhibition is set up in Spazio N3 of Palazzo Lombardia and will remain open until Oct. 16, 2025, with free admission, with hours Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Curated by Sabino Maria Frassà, the exhibition is part of the official program of theMilan Cortina 2026 Cultural Olympiad and is promoted by Cramum and Regione Lombardia, with the patronage of the Italian Paralympic Committee and INJA Louis Braille in Paris.
The title “LUDI” already encapsulates the meaning of the entire project: not only as a reference to classical Latin, where the term ludi indicated festivals, celebrations and moments of community, but also as an acronym that Morella interprets as “Language, Union, Dialogue, Encounter.” The choice of this term underscores the desire to rethink art not as a static representation, but rather as a relational and participatory device that is completed only through the interaction of the public.
The exhibition was created as the second event in the cycle The Limits Do Not Exist, a journey conceived by Morella that has already touched Trentino and will conclude in the Dolomites on the occasion of the 2026 Winter Paralympics. Through a multisensory approach, the project aims to promote inclusion and accessibility, inviting people to experience art with all their senses. For the Milan stage, Morella wanted to involve Mazzucchelli, a master of inflatable art, creating a dialogue that interweaves different materials and languages.
The heart of the exhibition is Morella’s previously unseen LUDI drawing: four concentric, sloping ellipses, conceived not as closed forms but as open, dynamic signs capable of welcoming and relating. In these figures, voids do not represent absences, but become spaces of passage and thresholds of encounter. The work is proposed as a visual synthesis of a concept of art that is not limited to being observed, but invites to be touched, crossed and inhabited.
Curator Frassà emphasized that LUDI is not a traditional graphic sign, but an artistic device capable of activating relationships. "With LUDI Morella has created a form that does not represent, but activates,“ he explained. ”It is an artistic device that invites to participate, to experience art with all the senses. It is not just observing, but touching, crossing, playing. In classical Latin, ludi were public celebrations, moments of community: Morella takes the spirit and transforms it into a new artistic alphabet, in which LUDI becomes an acronym for Language, Union, Dialogue, Encounter. This new form becomes a symbol and an invitation to excel together, in a game of intelligences, bodies, emotions, where we win only if we really meet. Art does not impose, but welcomes: it creates shared spaces of meaning, ignites bonds, generates possibilities."
The project took shape through more than two years of collaboration between the two artists. Mazzucchelli reinterpreted the design by translating it into monumental PVC inflatable installations that welcome visitors by inviting them to enter and pass through light and imposing forms. Morella, for his part, has declined LUDI into turned wooden sculptures, enriched with braille lettering and star-shaped decorations, elements that make the work accessible even to those living with a condition of visual impairment.
The result is a path that brings together tactile surfaces and inflatable installations. The installation accompanies visitors in an experience that is not intended to be limited to the eye, but to involve the body, touch and listening, in a continuous exchange between individual and community. LUDI thus presents itself not only as a temporary exhibition, but as an invitation to rediscover play in its universal dimension. In play, understood as ritual and as a collective experience, one finds the possibility of building relationships and breaking down barriers, of bringing different bodies and intelligences into dialogue. It is in this perspective that the project fits into the context of the Milan Cortina 2026 Cultural Olympiad: a large widespread workshop that accompanies the wait for the Games with artistic and cultural initiatives dedicated to the theme of inclusion.
The Milan exhibition thus marks a new chapter in a journey through the symbolic places of the upcoming Winter Paralympics. After the first stage in Trentino, LUDI brings to Milan a language that combines different materials and approaches, waiting to conclude with the stage in the Dolomites. At each venue, art becomes an opportunity to reflect on accessibility and the value of participation, in a vision that crosses disciplinary and social boundaries.
Free admission and the accessibility of the spaces confirm the desire to make art the heritage of all, not the privilege of a few. LUDI thus invites visitors to discover not only works of art, but collective experiences in which contact and encounter become an integral part of the journey. With LUDI - Art is an Embrace, Palazzo Lombardia thus becomes the place where art, play and inclusion come together, offering a significant preview of the spirit that will animate Milano Cortina 2026.
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| If art becomes a game: Morella and Mazzucchelli's exhibition at Palazzo Lombardia |
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