From December 6, 2025 to March 22, 2026, the Mart in Rovereto will host Sotto il sole, a site-specific exhibition by emerging artist Vittorio Marella (Venice, 1997), the brainchild of Vittorio Sgarbi and curated by Denis Isaia and Giovanna Zabotti, in collaboration with theCultura 360 Association. The exhibition offers an intense and poetic reflection on the relationship between human beings and the environment, a central theme in Marella’s art, already investigated in previous large-scale pictorial cycles such as Verso il mondo nuovo, presented at Palazzo Merulana in Rome in 2024. With a set-up designed to enhance the dialogue between space and work, the exhibition takes visitors through a journey from the intimacy of detail to the monumentality of a painting that expands above the viewer’s head.
The exhibition itinerary opens with four small-format canvases, conceived as a preamble to the project. These close-up works, almost cinematic close-ups, focus on faces that are partially covered by the hands of the subjects who stand in the sunlight, creating an effect of suspension and introspection. The choice to display these canvases in a narrow corridor, with retractable systems that make them appear suspended in the air, prepares the visitor for a broader sensory experience, anticipating the sense of levity and suspension that characterizes the entire project.
Past the introductory corridor, the audience crosses a physical and symbolic threshold: a large, full-height black curtain that signals the entrance to an “other” space. Here the environment expands and transforms into a total black box, in which walls and ceiling painted in opaque black eliminate all perspective reference points. In this dark void, the true essence of the exhibition is revealed: eight large 2.5-meter by 2.6-meter canvases , arranged on the ceiling and conceived as a contemporary reinterpretation of the Venetian tradition of canvases, transform the ceiling into a new material sky. The scene portrays boys and girls lying under a blazing sun, without geographical or seasonal references, creating an atmosphere suspended in impetuous and present time. The surrounding emptiness and the absence of conventional narrative elements, such as water, mountains or horizons, force the viewer to confront the weight of light and the fragility of human existence.
The technical structure supporting the canvases, made of American beams painted black to blend in with the environment, appears invisible, allowing the canvases to hover in space like a suspended artificial sky. The lighting system completes the experience: upward-facing 3000 K temperature LED reflectors invert the natural perception of light, creating an effect of radiant energy that seems to emerge directly from the painting. The warm, intense light interacts with the work’s color palette, causing the pigments to vibrate and lending a sense of vitality and depth to the artificial sky.
The experience offered by the exhibition Under the Sun is therefore not limited to the visual contemplation of the works, but aims to involve the viewer in a path that links perception, emotion and reflection. The small introductory paintings, with the close-up details of faces and their suspension in the air, guide the viewer toward the encounter with the large canvas, where monumental painting and artificial light transform the room into a unique environment. The lack of conventional environmental references accentuates the sense of suspension and the focus on the relationship between the human body and the intense light, a symbol of the strength of nature and the vulnerability of the individual.
Marella’s project is part of the Mart’s broader focus on new contemporary voices. With Under the Sun, Marella creates a narrative spatial journey, in which the viewer is asked to physically move through environments designed to elicit surprise and sensory involvement. The sequence from the intimate works to the monumental telerone builds a narrative tension that amplifies the meaning of the central theme: the relationship between the individual and the force of nature.
Vittorio Marella, born in Venice in 1997, lives and works between Venice and London. After studying astrophysics at the University of Padua and history and archaeology at Ca’ Foscari, he decided to devote himself entirely to art in 2020. In recent years he has collaborated with numerous galleries in Italy and abroad, participating in fairs, group and solo exhibitions, and has exhibited in prestigious museums such as the Museo degli Eremitani in Padua, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and Palazzo Merulana in Rome. In 2024, he was invited to participate in the Venice Pavilion of the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, cementing his reputation as an emerging artist of international significance.
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| Vittorio Marella explores the relationship between man and the environment at the Mart in Rovereto |
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