The Il Frantoio Gallery in Capalbio (Grosseto) is hosting “Mimmo Paladino. “Drammaturghi / Storyboard,” an exhibition curated by Davide Sarchioni. The exhibition, organized by the Il Frantoio Cultural Association in collaboration with the Capalbio Foundation and under the patronage of the Municipality of Capalbio, opens on Wednesday, September 16, at 6 p.m., with the artist in attendance. The project is part of the fifth edition of the Capalbio Film Festival, for which Paladino also created the original poster design.
Born in Paduli in 1948 and one of the leading figures of the Transavantgarde, Mimmo Paladino has developed a body of work that has expanded from painting and sculpture to drawing, architecture, set design, and film. The exhibition focuses on drawing through two groups of works on paper, *I Drammaturghi* and *Storyboard*, created between 2005 and 2018. The works document the artist’s relationship with theater, literature, and cinema, identifying drawing as a space in which figures, symbols, archetypes, signs, and colors are developed before taking on a definitive form.
There are sixteen works in the series *I Drammaturghi*, each dedicated to a figure from the history of European theater and culture. The first group dates back to 2005, while in 2018 Paladino expanded the series for the exhibition-installation *Paladino at the Teatro Valle. 19 Playwrights and a Curtain on Stage*. The subjects include Antonin Artaud, Samuel Beckett, Bertolt Brecht, Aeschylus, Carlo Goldoni, Eugène Ionesco, Molière, Luigi Pirandello, William Shakespeare, August Strindberg, Henrik Ibsen, Sarah Kane, Carmelo Bene, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Tadeusz Kantor, and Dario Fo. Their faces are rendered through symbols, fragments, and swaths of color.
Theater is a recurring element in Paladino’s work, including through collaborations with directors, actors, and theater companies on set designs and installations for the stage—an experience also linked to the origins of *La Montagna di sale*. A similar interest in storytelling extends to cinema. In 2006, the artist created *Quijote*, his first feature-length film inspired by Cervantes’s novel, while in 2022 he directed *La Divina Cometa*, loosely based on Dante’s universe.
Linked to this narrative are the eight storyboards on display in Capalbio, which present notes and possible sequences related to the construction of the cinematic image. The dialogue with *IDrammaturghi* forms the core of the exhibition, establishing connections between word, image, scene, and movement. The opening will be accompanied by a screening of *Quijote*, starring, among others, Peppe Servillo and Lucio Dalla, and presented at the Venice Film Festival in 2026. The film will be screened on September 16 at the Nuovo Cinema Tirreno in Borgo Carige.
“Another major event that enriches Capalbio’s cultural season,” comments Mayor Gianfranco Chelini. “We are delighted to host the exhibition by Mimmo Paladino in our town—an artist who was also commissioned to create the poster image for the 2026 edition of the Capalbio Film Festival.”
“Mimmo Paladino’s exhibition perfectly encapsulates the vision of the Il Frantoio Cultural Association,” says Maria Concetta Monaci, President of the Capalbio Foundation. “Over the years, the space has hosted major exhibitions, but this one touches directly on the soul of the region: a place that expresses a natural affinity for art and finds its strength in intercultural dialogue.”
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| Mimmo Paladino Brings Theater and Cinema to the Page in Capalbio (Grosseto) |
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