Thirty years after its creation, the Virginia Art Theatrum - Museum of Catastrophe, the Philosophical House of Vettor Pisani (Bari, 1935 - Rome, 2011) in Serre di Rapolano (Siena), will reopen its doors to the public on Friday, November 21, 2025. The occasion also allows visitors to enter inside the House-Museum-Theater that the artist conceived in 1995 as a true Total Work of Art: a space already “visible” from the outside thanks to a small triangular window that reveals the enigmatic apparition of the Virgin, in dialogue with the “theatrum” of the travertine quarry behind. It is a unique case in the Italian art scene, a Gesamtkunstwerk in the sense theorized by Trahndorff and Wagner and, at the same time, the Opus Magnum of Pisani’s poetics, since it brings together and synthesizes painting, sculpture, architecture, theater, poetry and philosophy: all the forms with which the artist expressed himself throughout his career.
Wagner grasped both the innovative power of the Total Work of Art, projected into the future, and its deep connection with tragedy and Greek theater, and thus with classicism. This dialectic of opposites and the tragic climate at the origins of European culture also characterize Pisani’s vision, capable of moving between the most essential layers and abysses of human experience, from which he draws the metamorphic energy that fuels his entire production. In fact, the Philosophical House, understood as a creative workshop but also as a psychological place, reflects a tension toward the attainment of the Self, an introspective journey that recalls the hermitages scattered in the surrounding territory.
Faithful to the Gnostic imprint of early Christianity and to a cosmological vision, Pisani chose to keep this dwelling secluded and secret, offering the public a personal means of access to vision-revelation through that small triangular window, which represents the goal of an initiatory path that aims to conquer that “stone” that is not only building material, but a symbol of accomplished transformation: the ancient Philosopher’s Stone of the alchemists.
In the primordial landscape of the travertine quarries, Pisani recognized an extraordinary potential: the reunion of Earth and Heaven, achieved through a work of purification and refinement that elevates the material toward the immaterial.
Left unchanged after the departure of the artist and his wife Mimma, the House-Museum, overhanging a travertine quarry, today constitutes a rare example of immersive conceptual architecture, where art and thought come together. The Nov. 21 reopening thus marks the beginning of a new phase dedicated to the figure of Vettor Pisani and his Total Work: a project shared by the Virginia Art Theatrum Association, the Vettor Pisani Archive and local institutions to restore vitality and accessibility to a heritage that, between 1995 and 2006, thanks to the La Grancia Civic Center and Zerynthia, was a vibrant theater of meetings and debates among artists, philosophers, composers, writers and actors of international relevance, becoming a true Living Theater.
The November 21 event is promoted by the Virginia Art Theatrum Association and the Fondazione Musei Senesi, in collaboration with the Vettor Pisani Archive, the Municipality of Rapolano Terme and Sarteano Living. In the future, in full respect of the artist’s vision, the Philosophical House-Museum will be open to the public only by reservation and at specific times of the year.
Friday, November 21, 2025
Guided tours at 11 am, 12 noon, 3 pm, 4 pm.
Recommended parking is next to the Sports Field in Serre di Rapolano, just before the entrance to the town. The shuttle service provided by the City of Rapolano Terme (30 seats) will depart from here, with departures at 10:45 a.m., 11:45 a.m., 2:45 p.m. and 3:45 p.m. The service will be organized so that those who leave their cars in the parking lot will be able to reach the House of Vettor Pisani and then visit the Museum of the Grancia and the ongoing exhibition Incanto e Fatica nelle Crete Senesi. At the end of the visit, the shuttle will take visitors back to the parking lot.
Reservations welcome by email (to comunicazione@museisenesi.org) or by filling out the form: https://bit.ly/VETTOR_PISANI_21_NOVEMBRE.
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| Exceptional reopening of Virginia Art Theatrum, Vettor Pisani's Philosophical House in Serre di Rapolano |
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