From July 22, 2025, in Milan, Palazzo Reale opens its doors to the largest exhibition ever dedicated to Valerio Berruti (Alba, 1977) among the most recognizable and poetic Italian artists on the contemporary scene. Entitled VALERIO BERRUTI. More than kids, the exhibition offers an immersive journey into the author’s world, built with works ranging from monumental sculptures to video-animations, from drawings to installations. It is a journey that starts fromchildhood - seen as a time of endless possibilities - to touch on universal themes that speak to all ages.
The exhibition, promoted by the City of Milan - Culture and produced by Palazzo Reale and Arthemisia in collaboration with Piuma, is curated by Nicolas Ballario. Also supporting the initiative is the Ferrero Foundation, which hosted a preparatory exhibition in Alba in the preceding months with unpublished and site-specific works by the artist. The Milan exhibition thus represents a culminating point of a larger exhibition project designed to comprehensively narrate Berruti’s poetics, capable of blending visual simplicity and emotional density.
Valerio Berruti has built over time a deeply recognizable artistic language that moves between painting, sculpture and animation. Children always figure at the center of his research: delicate, essential silhouettes suspended in timeless, everyday poses. But these are not simply portraits: as the exhibition’s subtitle, More than kids, suggests, these are universal symbols, collective archetypes that speak of childhood as a place of common belonging.
Childhood, for Berruti, is not a time to regret but a dimension to explore, an inner landscape inhabited by memories and possibilities. In his works, children are never idealized, nor narrated with nostalgia, but become metaphors of a fragile humanity, in search of salvation, capable of hope. And it is precisely this vision that gives the exhibition path an emotional force that engages and questions the viewer, generating a space for reflection in which art becomes a conduit between the personal and the collective.
One of the peculiarities of the exhibition More than kids is its participatory and immersive dimension. The works are not simply exhibited: they are walked through, inhabited, experienced. The most emblematic example is the large merry-go-round created by Berruti, entitled La giostra di Nina (Nina’s merry-go-round), a monumental sculpture animated by Ludovico Einaudi’s original music. The work is not only to be admired: the public can climb onto the merry-go-round, physically enter the work and be transported into an experience that combines play and contemplation.
Alongside this installation, other works engage the viewer in a direct way: a group of children in a circle invites one to enter a suspended, dreamlike dimension; a little girl floats in water evoking the need to save herself; large birds carry in flight those who allow themselves to be drawn into the fascination of an installation inspired by ancient merry-go-rounds. The balance between visual lightness and conceptual depth is the hallmark of the entire installation, which constantly moves between reality and symbol, delicacy and denunciation.
A central element of Berruti’s production is the dialogue between image and sound, strongly expressed in the video-animations that enrich the Milan exhibition. Prominent among the works presented are two new animations: Lilith, with an original soundtrack by Rodrigo D’Erasmo, and Cercare silenzio, accompanied by music by Samuel Romano, historic voice of Subsonica.
These works add to an already rich animated production that has featured composers of the caliber of Paolo Conte and Ryuichi Sakamoto. Each video stems from the fresco technique, from which Berruti draws individual frames that are subsequently animated, in a process that blends slow craftsmanship and contemporary storytelling. The result is a unique visual language in which music makes a decisive contribution to building the emotional atmosphere of the work.
Among the most anticipated new additions to the exhibition is Don’t let me be wrong, a monumental sculpture placed in the courtyard of the Royal Palace. The work is also the title of a short film made by Berruti with about eight hundred drawings in sequence and set to music by Daddy G, founder of the group Massive Attack, together with producer Stew Jackson. The short film is projected inside the sculpture itself, transforming the work into an audiovisual space in which the viewer is immersed in the visual and aural rhythm of the narrative.
The work addresses issues of great social urgency, including climate change, a topic dear to the artist and central to his most recent works. Also in the exhibition is Nel silenzio (In Silence), a work that depicts three little girls lying on a sunburned earth. The landscape is desolate, almost apocalyptic, but inhabited by childlike presences that suggest both the fragility of humanity and the possibility of rebirth.
With More than kids, Palazzo Reale offers an opportunity to connect with an artist who has always wanted to speak to the heart and mind, and who combines aesthetic rigor and civic engagement. It is a journey that starts with children, but does not stop with them.
For all information, you can visit the official website of the Royal Palace.
 |
| Milan, Valerio Berruti at Palazzo Reale with "More than kids," his largest solo show |
Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.
