The shadow of fireflies: fragile light through the contemporary in Arzignano (Vicenza)

From Feb. 20 to April 18, 2026, the Atipografia gallery in Arzignano, Vicenza, hosts L’ombra delle lucciole (The Shadow of Fireflies), the second stage of an exhibition cycle that investigates the three-dimensionality of human beings and the complexities of our time through contemporary language. The exhibition, curated by Alfonso Cariolato and Luigi de Marzi, brings together the works of Mats Bergquist, Marco Tirelli, Silvia Inselvini and Loes van Roozendaal, united by the theme of light as a presence capable of making the infinite possibilities of existence partially perceptible.

“Art,” explains curator Alfonso Cariolato, “does not have to do with the light that illuminates, but rather with the creation of the world, with the appearance of things, with what is of the world-what is called phenomenality. Or, in terms borrowed from metaphysics and aesthetics: not so much lumen understood as the light that reflects off objects and surfaces making them perceptible, but rather lux as the condition of appearing, the making of the visible, creation without a creator.”

“It is the light of the candle,” says curator Luigi de Marzi, “vibrant, weak, variable, unforeseen, that allows us to discover that the things around us are not necessarily visible in every part of them, the world is not and should not be comprehensible in every form, but it becomes interesting to make this partiality be enough, to accept the mystery. It is not a seeing as much as a peering.”

The exhibition follows the first episode of the trilogy, inaugurated in 2025 with the exhibition Matermània/Matermanìa, which addressed the theme of motherhood as a moment of collectivity, in which the self is transformed into us. If the first exhibition emphasized the inclusion of man within a whole, The Shadow of the Fireflies continues the analysis by suggesting the impossibility of fully understanding the world without accepting the mystery of its simple existence. In a context where artificial lights and digital screens dominate everyday perception, the exhibition proposes an alternative observation, shifting attention from direct confrontation with absolute brightness or darkness to an in-between zone, where faint glimmers coexist with shadow. Fireflies become metaphors for discrete lights that, while unable to overcome darkness, reveal the complexity of appearance. Art, in this context, focuses on perception and experience rather than spectacle. As philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy points out, “a painter does not paint forms unless he first paints a force that takes hold of forms and draws them into a presence.”

The works on display include paintings, encaustics, works on paper and wood that mark an indefinite time, suspended between day and night, light and dark. Marco Tirelli (Italy, 1956) builds mental spaces on canvas in which shadow becomes active matter, tension and expectation, placing itself between abstraction and reality, inviting the viewer to explore the possibilities and limits of perception. The monochrome encaustics of Mats Bergquist (Sweden, 1962) play on the boundary between light and shadow, as in the work Shadow of a smile (2015), in which white enhances the forms of wood, creating a dialogue between matter and luminosity.

Silvia Inselvini (Italy, 1987) uses dozens of kilometers of crossed lines in ballpoint pen on paper or wooden boards, gradually saturating each white space. The effect is an intense surface that oscillates between uniformity and vibration, where an imperceptible luminosity emerges from the color itself. Loes van Roozendaal (Netherlands, 1996) focuses his research on the appearance of objects: multiple glazes and tonal variations allow the viewer to perceive faint glimmers, fixing forms at indefinite moments and capturing the changing nature of the environmental context. The shadow of fireflies is part of the cultural programming of the Atipografia gallery, which promotes artistic practices capable of establishing a dialogue with the social and cultural context and the tensions of contemporary times.

The shadow of fireflies: fragile light through the contemporary in Arzignano (Vicenza)

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